2018: Review of the Year

Although I haven't nailed many killer shots in my opinion, 2018 has probably been my best birding and bird photography year so far.

Here's a quick list of my birding achievements in 2018:

• 21 Lifers seen
• 217 species seen
• 2 BirdGuides 'Photos of the Week'
• 9 BirdGuides 'Notable Photographs'
• Reader's letter with Desert Wheatear published in BirdGuides
• Double-page spread in Birdwatch magazine using one of my Brambling photos
• Requests to use my photos by:
• Clwyd Bird Recording Group (NE Wales) - Lekking Black Grouse
• Heysham Bird Observatory -  Chough in Flight (actually late December 2017).
• Surrey Arts Festival - Kingfisher
• My first bird photography presentation - 'Adventures in a Birdmobile'

I've never been birding from a boat before and this year I did my first 'pelagic' trips:

• Liverpool Bay with Richard Steel, Steve Round, Austin Thomas, Mike Nesbitt, Dave Williams and Paul Foster
• RSPB Boat trip to Bempton Cliffs
• Liverpool Bay - a repeat trip with even less birds so we ended up eating the mackerel onboard
• Diving Gannet Experience with Steve Race at Yorkshire Coast Nature

I've also been to Mull, Minsmere, East Yorkshire, Dumfries and Galloway.

I've had a few flops including the Ospreys at Horn Mill Trout Farm in Rutland and one of the Liverpool Bay trips, but on the whole not a bad year's birding - here's to some more adventures in 2019 with the following possibilities:

• Cairngorms (booked January 2019)
• Norfolk (booked February 2019)
• Skomer
• Shetland
• Scilly Islands - pelagic

Other targets:

• Cambridge Fens for Short-Eared Owls
• Padley Gorge for Pied and Spotted Flycatchers
• Stanage Edge for Ring Ouzels
• Suffolk for Nightingales and Stone Curlews
• Dunwich Heath and Minsmere again for Dartford Warblers, Bitterns and Marsh Harriers
• Kent for Hobbies and Cuckoos

And desperately wanting ...

• Capercaillie
• Hoopoe
• Wryneck
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Albatross!