2025 Birding Goals (2 Viewers)

[lgonz1008]

To me, Thailand, Malaysia are the top two gateway destinations in the region but that’s in part because I prioritize ease of independent travel by self driving which is trickier in Indonesia etc

That said I did a Kenya self drive trip this summer and that was phenomenal, highly recommended. Of the three richest birding continents, Asia is the slowest to give up its treasures (which you can appreciate for the challenge or struggle with depending on your taste/patience)

Asia is the slowest, Africa is the easiest, but somehow South America is the most welcoming by having both beautiful treasures that can be readily seen and others that we still dream about every time we plan a trip to the region.

 

[EugeneVanga]

I'm hoping it's as good as I've heard for Sulawesi and Halmahera.

Hopefully you get your targets, I'm still in the point of any place can give me lots of lifers, but Borneo and Madagascar are places that are high on my list regardless of how little experience I have in the field.

Why not Madagascar? We have mostly endemics.

 

[EugeneVanga]

I'm hoping it's as good as I've heard for Sulawesi and Halmahera.

Hopefully you get your targets, I'm still in the point of any place can give me lots of lifers, but Borneo and Madagascar are places that are high on my list regardless of how little experience I have in the field.

Hi
Honestly if you need someone who can Organize your Birding Trip I can do that.Let me give you my What'app: 00261341750039.
Thank you.

 

[Frank van Drogen]

This needed some thought, although not very different from my 2024 goals. The easy and short answer to what would be my 2025 goals is to keep having as much fun as I have now!

Changing family dynamics in 2024 provided the opportunity to undertake some occasional day trips, sometimes together with my wife, to go bird watching. We definitely intend to continue this, visiting different sites in Switzerland and the nearby border regions in Germany and France next year.

We will definitely be visiting the Netherlands again this spring to see my family. Last year I did get out and got to see an interesting variety of waders around the Lauwersmeer. This year I hope to do something similar, maybe trying to add some gulls — definitely an identification challenge!

Another fixed item on our schedule are regular visits took place in France. There seems to be an interesting Nature reserve about 30 minutes from here. RNN Val d’Allier — various river habitat in a 20 km stretch. We plan to visit tomorrow, and hope to make it a regular feature when here.

I do enjoy making photos (Media Search - Macaulay Library and eBird), there is LOTS of room for improvement, and I will keep trying

Lastly, we hope to have the opportunity to undertake a small birding trip. My wife likes walking in nature, and thinks it would be very nice to go some place where we can enjoy birds and some nice walks/hikes. She initially narrowed options a tad down by requesting a place where there are neither snakes nor spiders… but when I showed some photos of Costa Rica she was not fully against. I am not sure if it it is a great place for a not so experienced birder though. I am definitely open for suggestions about birding destinations for a short holiday!

 

[hookem2010]

I have only been to Costa Rica as a non-birder, but I would say it is great for anyone with any interest in nature. Generally safe, friendly people, easily accessible, beautiful natural sites (although I chose the more remote Osa Peninsula on my trip in 2014). Probably at the top of my list for a family vacation where I can get in a lot of birding without going off on my own too much.
We saw plenty of non-avian wildlife on our trip too. 4 species of monkey, 1 sloth species, crocodile, basilisk, tamandua and tapir! Solid scuba as well.

 

[Mysticete]

A new late goal: apparently mudpuppies are pretty easy to spotlight near shore during cold weather, as long as ice isn't present. So that is going to be a goal this year!

 

[raymie]

A new late goal: apparently mudpuppies are pretty easy to spotlight near shore during cold weather, as long as ice isn't present. So that is going to be a goal this year!

They're pretty easy to catch on hook and line underneath dams on the Wisconsin River, or so I've heard.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Quite up in the air for next year but I do have two foreign trips in the diary including a bit of a boat trip as well as some domestic pelagics booked. I do need to get my head around things a bit better though. Any way, decided on my 2025 targets which are probably a bit of a push with what I have arranged so far and less than the last two years...

1. Get my 2023 world photo year list completed (finally....);

2. Add at least one photo of each species that I have photographed into eBird;

3. Keep an up to date world list in eBird & record my yearlist in eBird throughout the year;

4. Record at least 1,000 bird species in the year;

5. Get my eBird World List through 4,000 species;

6. Photograph over 400 new bird species worldwide in the year;

7. Get my photographed species in eBird through 3,750;

8. Get a British & Irish moth list input into BUBO;

9. Record my Britain & Ireland moth list in BUBO throughout the year; &

10. Spend at least twenty nights moth trapping in the field in the year.

All the best

Paul

 

[Frank van Drogen]

10. Spend at least twenty nights moth trapping in the year.

Just do that for the first three weeks of January…. One of the goals nailed before the end of the month!!

 

[Paul Chapman]

Just do that for the first three weeks of January…. One of the goals nailed before the end of the month!!

Clarified the wording. 😀

 

[Lerxst]

8. Get a British & Irish moth list input into BUBO;

9. Record my Britain & Ireland moth list in BUBO throughout the year; &

10. Spend at least twenty nights moth trapping in the field in the year.

Ah, now that you have broken the ice, so to speak, I can amend my list of goals! I'm actually far more interested in building my dragonfly/damselfly life list this year than anything else. Hoping to add at least 50 species from here in Minnesota alone. I have no idea if that is going to be easy or hard.

My wife bought me a quality net for Christmas and I can only imagine how challenging it is going to be for me to use it.

 

[Muppit17]

Ah, now that you have broken the ice, so to speak, I can amend my list of goals! I'm actually far more interested in building my dragonfly/damselfly life list this year than anything else. Hoping to add at least 50 species from here in Minnesota alone. I have no idea if that is going to be easy or hard.

My wife bought me a quality net for Christmas and I can only imagine how challenging it is going to be for me to use it.

Given up with nets, seen too many damaged odonata, even decapitated ones, by people wielding nets. Photo them now

 

[dandsblair]

I have no targets for numbers this year but we have two Asian trips booked - 3 weeks in Philippines (Mindanao / Negros) in February looking for Island endemics plus anything we missed on previous Philippine trip (Sarah missed the Trogon on Bohol).
Then trip to Lesser Sundas for endemics and Komodo Dragon in June.
I'm sure we will do something else later in the year

 

[pbjosh]

Lastly, we hope to have the opportunity to undertake a small birding trip. My wife likes walking in nature, and thinks it would be very nice to go some place where we can enjoy birds and some nice walks/hikes. She initially narrowed options a tad down by requesting a place where there are neither snakes nor spiders… but when I showed some photos of Costa Rica she was not fully against. I am not sure if it it is a great place for a not so experienced birder though. I am definitely open for suggestions about birding destinations for a short holiday!

Costa Rica is a great place for any birder, don’t be put off. I would suggest going anywhere that you think you’ll both be happy and enjoy. No one is an expert on the birds on their first trips to a new continent. I just spent a couple weeks in NE India with friends who are much more experienced Asian birders than I am and felt like a drooling idiot most of the time but it was a grand trip all the same

 

[pbjosh]

I never really have goals beyond hopefully do a lot of fun birding and have some nice trips with my partner and with friends. I’m sure I’ll manage both, though I only have one trip in the cooker at the moment, headed to the Lesser Antilles in Feb/Mar. Beyond that I honestly haven’t really thought about much though there are always ideas swirling around and I’m frequently easily tempted by plans that friends cook up.

Happy 2025 and good birding to all

 

[Lerxst]

Given up with nets, seen too many damaged odonata, even decapitated ones, by people wielding nets. Photo them now

Understood. I am not planning to use the net except in cases when I cannot manage a photo, or if doing a survey that the local odonata organization needs a specimen collected for. Assuming I can even manage it.. I have no experience with capturing fast insects and expect it to be damn difficult to do, especially with my eyesight problems. Perhaps my wife will have to do it.

 

[mjh73]

Hit 600 on my Australia list (currently on 574. Trip to Darwin for the first time in January should get me a lot closer weather/birds permitting)

Should have set a tougher target!

Weather in 'the Top End' (tropical zone of Northern Territory) was much better that it could have been, I'd had a couple of local vagrants so started the trip in 576, added 30 for an Australian life list of 606.

It's the wet season up there but was still in the 'build up' (oppressive heat and humidity) because monsoon conditions have not yet arrived (later than expected...) So it was still possible to get around and birds still fairly get able

 

[lmans66]

To target birds that are on my 'list' but not yet seen. Make a specific point to find where they are and find them.

 

[wolfbirder]

For me, I think I am done with foreign trips, I’ve loved travelling across the Western Palearctic and also occasionally to Canada and the US, and to St Lucia once for a wedding.

But with age and poorer health, I’m going to concentrate efforts on the UK. I am 4 short of 500 for my British list but will lose around 5 with the streamlining of species that is imminent.

Maybe spend a week in Cornwall seawatching off Porthgwarra and Pendeen in August, though I know I will still struggle to get onto birds there.

Maybe a week on Shetland or Scillies in October but it’s so difficult to book ahead when you need to wait for the weather to produce and then go. Also you need to be in the right place at the right time and be flexible.

I would like to do a comfortable wildlife cruise when I retire (if I get that far).

 

[Paul Chapman]

For me, I think I am done with foreign trips, I’ve loved travelling across the Western Palearctic and also occasionally to Canada and the US, and to St Lucia once for a wedding.

But with age and poorer health, I’m going to concentrate efforts on the UK. I am 4 short of 500 for my British list but will lose around 5 with the streamlining of species that is imminent.

Maybe spend a week in Cornwall seawatching off Porthgwarra and Pendeen in August, though I know I will still struggle to get onto birds there.

Maybe a week on Shetland or Scillies in October but it’s so difficult to book ahead when you need to wait for the weather to produce and then go. Also you need to be in the right place at the right time and be flexible.

I would like to do a comfortable wildlife cruise when I retire (if I get that far).

Nick

If 500 is to be your main priority, I think that the lumps likely to affect the British List in 2025 are:-

Mealy Redpoll - lost already
Arctic Redpoll - lost already
Green-winged Teal
Cabot's Tern - unlikely to affect you (& doesn't affect me)
Yelkouan Shearwater
Hooded Crow
Amur (Stejneger's) Stonechat (into Siberian Stonechat)

Looking at my ticks around the same time in my list - 490s around twenty years ago now - I got say 4 to 8 ticks per year but a good proportion - half maybe - were islands so if that is your intention, I would save your pennies for a twitching pot to react as quickly as possible when the opportunity arises. But you have to be able to smile when you dip - bloody difficult - otherwise you delay next time too long when an opportunity arises.

Good luck.

All the best

Paul