A mere 18 years for me. 😂

We've now made it down to the south coast of Spain & parked up near Malaga. Really enjoyed seeing species I've not seen for many years, in some instances decades! The birding highlight has been Dupont's Lark near Zaragoza, which I've only seen once before in Morocco, in 1993.

Photo of single individual

Extremely pleased to connect with Iberian Lynx yesterday - Over half an hour spent with not 1 but 3 of these brilliant cats. A single and an adult with well grown cub. Not the best video, but the views were great through the scope.

Finally after 5 days of driving; through 2 storm, 5 days of rain & high winds (reaching 60mph yesterday), we have had a dry & non-travel day. Now in northern Spain and enjoying lovely views from the camper of the local church complete with its 6+ White Stork nests. 😀🍷☀️ 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

Our 2nd day in France on our French/Spanish road trip. Hoping to escape our awful British weather, but so far it's even worse with fairly constant wind & rain. Managed an hours birding this am and picked up my 1st Short-toed Treecreeper & Middle Spotted Woodpeckers since 1990! 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

Well, our Brazil trip finally comes to an end. There has. definitely been a Rallidae theme throughout, with a total 18 species of rail seen. First tick of the trip was a Little Wood Rail & final tick of the trip, a very confiding Rufous-sided Crake. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

Piculets, a distinct sub-family of Woodpeckers, have always been a favourite of mine, so I was pleased to see a new one: Mottled Piculet in Santa Catarina, Brazil yesterday. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

Now on our 3rd leg of the tour, South Brazil. One of the key targets was Canebrake Groundcreeper, which, at the 3rd site we visited for it and half an hour of hide and seek, it finally showed well. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

An excellent couple of days birding Alagoas state, Brazil, with all the main targets seen. One of the key species here is the range restricted Seven-coloured Tanager which eventually showed quite well. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

We have now moved on to the second leg of our Brazil trip: Alagoas. An area I missed on my previous NE Brazil trip and one with a number of rare & range restricted species & this will certainly be the rarest; Orange-bellied Antwren, with a world population of about 20 pairs! 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

Incredible views of a day roosting Rufous Nightjar this morning, near Caxias, Brazil. A species I've missed on a couple of trips previously, so great to finally catch up with one. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

This certainly isn't the best photo of the trip, but it almost certainly will be the best bird of the trip. One of two Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoos see near Caxias, Brazil, this afternoon. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

An impressive 8 species of Rallidae seen over the last two days, with today's highlight being this Yellow-breasted Crake near Arari, in Maranhao, Brazil. 🪶 #BirdsSeenIn2026

And we're off. First tick the trip, Little Wood-Rail in mangroves just outside San Luis. All the better having missed this species on my NE Brazil trip a few years ago. 🪶

Couldn't resist the temptation to nip down to my old stomping ground of Westport Lake, to see the recently discovered Yellow-browed Warbler. My first visit for several years. An (old) patch & county tick. 🪶

My final birding and tick of the trip - an excellent pelagic off Valparaiso: Good numbers of the recently described Andean Storm-petrel (potential Wilsons split), but the highlight was a brief Juan Fernandez Petrel ✅. 2x Chatham Albatross were also notable.

Although there were no new birds involved, I could not resist the temptation to do a little night birding on our last night up in the Andes. Pleased we made the effort, with great views of Band-winged Nightjar & Lesser Horned Owl. 🪶

Just spent 4 nights in the Andes east of Santiago, based in Farellones, a ski resort town. Great birding & nobody around. One of the highlights has been getting great views of Crag Chilia a central Chile endemic.🪶

Finally, on our 3rd morning of trying, and as we were about to give up again - we scored on our 8th new and our final Tapaculo of the trip: White-throated Tapaculo. Chile is the place to see some of the best members of this brilliant family.🪶

My 2 most wanted species on our Chile trip were the Black-throated & Chestnut-throated Huet-huets. We had decent albeit brief sightings of Black-throated a few days ago but no photos. I was hoping Chestnut-throated would improve on this. Happily it did directly outside our lodge! 🪶

Over the past few weeks we have tried for Austral Pygmy-Owl on numerous occasions to no avail, so much so, I was starting to believe we were going to miss it completely. Today that worry was removed - well and truly removed! 🪶

A brilliant days birding around Puerto Montt, with 3 new Tapaculos in the bag. The highlight though was the night birding, with a superb Rufous-legged Owl, which eventually put in an excellent performance, after a fruitless couple of hours. 🪶

Our last full day in Patagonia, which we had set aside to hike up Mount Tarn. It did not disappoint (although my left knee would disagree), with stunning views of White-bellied Seedsnipe, by far the hardest Seedsnipe to see and which completes the family (of 4) for us.

Just spent 24 hours on Tierra del Fuego, primarily to get Short-billed Miner, for Linda to see her first King Penguins and to pick up a few seabirds on the ferry crossings. We were successful on all accounts.🪶

Just finished 3 days in the Torres del Paine National Park, in Patagonia. Both target birds seen (White-throated Caracara & Yellow-bridled Finch) and finally on our last morning - Puma 😀.🪶

A day spent catching up with our last 2 targets on our Northern section of the trip: Rufescent Flycatcher & Tschudi's Nightjar, coincidently both species which we looked for & missed in Peru last year.

A brilliant days birding in the Andean puna above San Pedro de Atacama. Nailed both my targets with a bonus (3) Puna Tinamou thanks to a tip off from @DaleHornsea . The highlight was 2 pairs of the smart Red-backed Sierra Finch with showed well after several hours of searching.

Today was another travel day, driving the 500km from Iquique to San Pedro de Atacama, through the Atacama desert. We manage to get the highly localised Tamarugo Conebill on the journey which was only described as recently as the 1970's.

Enjoyable albeit slightly disappointing pelagic off Iquique this morning. Finally caught up with Peruvian Diving-Petrel, but the highlight were the 200 or so Elliot's Storm-petrels. Only a very brief Markham's and no hoped for Ringed stormies.