Bird Notes highlights of 2025

As the Daily Post's nature column enters its 97th year, my thanks to readers, to those who I have consulted and, especially, to the photographers who have generously allowed me to illustrate the weekly BirdNotes column with their wonderful images. Here I have selected some of the stories that made the news in 2025.

January - Love for Curlews, but is it enough? Do watch the short film, Stunned by Silence.
February - Can't beat a bit of bully - readers report an influx of Bullfinches 
March - Seabird first for Europe, at the foot of Yr Wyddfa - the potential first that no-one saw coming
April - E-lek-tric display by Hiraethog grouse - remarkable video of Black Grouse lekking on a power pole
May - Dipper, the canary of Welsh rivers, what does population trend tell us about water quality and climate?
June - Rare heron lands in Rhyl, and an equally rare dragonfly
July - Waders arrive in search of sanctuary, as reports show some species struggling on our most important wetlands
August - Experts help unlock the secrets of our smallest woodpecker, as European ornithologists meet in North Wales
September - Black Guillemots in Conwy Bay, more than the entire Welsh breeding population in one 'scope scan
October - Which is rarer, Little Bunting or Cetti's Warbler?, a perspective from North Wales' only bird observatory
November - Single Shorelark tells a global story - and some of the largest Woodpigeon migration witnessed
December - Tiny rings that reveal birds' lives - and a potential first for Wales

And on a personal note, the highlight of my year - and one of the biggest in my life - was the British Trust for Ornithology honouring me with the Dilys Breese Medal.