Welcome to 2025, everyone. Without introductory fanfare, here are my top birding highlights from the past year.

10. I see more and more bald eagles every year. I’m not the only one, of course, as bald eagles are doing well as a species, thankfully. I visited family in Erie, Pennsylvania, over the holiday break and saw five bald eagles at Presque Isle during a single visit. I saw a few more on the drive home along I-86 in New York.

9. Hawks, particularly red-tailed hawks and red-shouldered hawks, are even more common than bald eagles, of course. On a few occasions this year, I came across cooperative hawks and got some good close-up photos. In a later column, I’ll show the differences between zoom focal lengths when photographing birds.

8. Overall, it was a slow year for ducks, which is disappointing considering ducks are my favorite type of bird to watch. My best “duck day” came during the Christmas Bird Count when I got close-up views of long-tailed ducks and American wigeons. I need to do better on my ducks in 2025.

7. A pair of catbirds and four purple finches were regular sightings at my local park throughout January and February. Catbirds do not typically overwinter in New England, but these birds had a reliable food source that kept them here. It was strange to see catbirds with snow covering all the surrounding branches. Purple finches are not uncommon winter sightings, but it was fun to see them daily, nonetheless.

6. It’s always interesting to look back at what visited the birdfeeders over the past year. The usual suspects did not disappoint and kept me entertained, but the highlights this year included a brown thrasher on the suet feeder and a two- or three-day visit by a male and female purple finch.

5. I can peer directly into the woods from my office window at work. In the winter, I see a steady stream of juncos and white-throated sparrows. Year-round, I often see chickadees, titmice, cardinals and blue jays. Three times this year, I was treated to a pileated woodpecker sighting. Who doesn’t love the occasional pileated woodpecker sighting?

4. The Christmas Bird Count is always a fun day, and this year included several out-of-the-ordinary birds such as merlin, American pipit, pine warbler and yellow-rumped warbler. One never knows what the weather has in store for the CBC, and the cold, blustery day this year froze our fingers and watered our eyes, but we muddled through and found some good birds.

3. A mid-May visit to Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania, yielded more than 64 bird species in a single day. My brother Paul and I set out to reach 60 species and surpassed that number on our last stop within the park. It was a good mix of songbird migrants, seasonal nesters, year-round residents and shorebirds.

2. The local park where I walk a few times a week yielded a surprise sighting one day. I got to a break in the tall, thick brush just in time to see an eastern coyote trotting across a big field. Coyotes are certainly not rare in New England, but it was the best view I’ve had of one in a long time.

1. It was the perfect combination of hobbies that can be done at the same place. My son Andrew took up coastal fishing this year, and I accompanied him on a few trips to the water. I’m somewhat ambivalent toward fishing, but I took several birding breaks and enjoyed spending time outdoors with Andrew.

Here’s to another great year of birding.