January - Wallcreeper; a new bird for my Belgian list after a Walloon birder, convinced there must be at least one overwintering somewhere in Belgium, started prospecting all the likely habitat and eventually found one on the citadel of Dinant.
February - Barnacle Goose; huge numbers of this species seen during two trips to the coast, with at least 1350 of them in the Uitkerkse Polders.
March - Black Woodpecker; two males watched sky-pointing for at least ten minutes at Kalmthout Heath.
April - Fulmar; probably my best view ever as one flew low over my head on Great Yarmouth beach.
This was also the month I finally found my first Large Tortoiseshell butterfly.
May - White-backed Woodpecker; excellent view of an unexpected, self-found individual on the outskirts of Vienna, one of five species of woodpecker I saw that morning.
June - Shag; a fearless immature of the distinctive Mediterranean race desmarestii, which I'd not seen before, swimming amongst the bathing holidaymakers in Majorca!
July - Melodious Warbler; one located by its strange, rattling call in the south of Belgium.
A quiet month for birds, I had one day with 19 species of butterfly including my first Marbled Fritillary.
August - Dotterel; after two unsuccessful twitches I managed to relocate a group of 16 in some fields in Flemish Brabant, finally adding this long overdue species to my Belgian list.
September - Spoonbill; seen three times at the coast during the month with an impressive migration of around 80 birds over the polders on 25th.
October - Redwing; the very first individual of the autumn for Brussels on 1st with good numbers on migration towards the end of the month.
November - White Helmetshrike; not an easy choice with so many new birds seen in The Gambia but this one stood out of the fieldguide as one I really wanted to see and, having seen four of them really well, I can say it looks even better in the flesh, especially that ridiculously long, cream-tipped, white crest!
December - Shoveler; above-average numbers at my local patch throughout the month with a record count of 26 at the end of the month.
As you can see, it's not all about rarities as I find big numbers or unusual behaviour just as enjoyable. I did see five new species in Europe, though, namely Oriental Turtle Dove in The Netherlands (January), two fully grown, juvenile Saker Falcons on their nest in Slovakia (May), and Balearic Warbler, Moltoni's Warbler and Thekla Lark in Majorca (June), with another 144 lifers during my week in The Gambia. My 2015 year-list totalled 433 species, exactly 200 of which were in Belgium, 254 in Europe. The bird of the year title goes to the White-backed Woodpecker I found in Vienna. I had only ever glimpsed them in flight before in Finland and Poland so it was very satisfying to find my own and finally get to see it well.
