From 24-28 April 2017, 1945 birders found themselves bobbing about on the swells 200 nm SE of Cape Town, during BLSA's Flock at Sea. This was undoubtedly one of the greatest adventures ever in South Africa's birding history. And not only because of birds like Light-mantled Albatross, Sooty Albatross, Wandering Albatross, White-headed Petrel, Black-bellied Storm Petrel, Grey Petrel and Arctic Tern. Here are my five highlights of the cruise, with a short video of some of the sights, sounds, birds and people.

Just back from Champions of the Flyway 2017: an exhilarating week's birding in the Negev Desert of southern Israel, culminating in a crazy, nonstop, 24 hour bird race to see which team can record the most species in a day. I competed along with the "Birding Africa Black Harriers:" Callan Cohen, Dominic Rollinson, Ethan Kistler and myself. Read more to find out how we did, and how we did it. More importantly, we managed to raise $4,500 to help Doga Denegi fight the battle against the illegal slaughter of migratory birds in Turkey. 3, 2, 1...let's go birding!

Bonjour! Baillon's Crake has always been a bit of a head-scratcher for me...in this post I ponder some of its peculiarities, not least of which is "who was Baillon?". My friend Thoms Hohls recently connected with this species as the remote Nstikeni Wetland in KZN - only his Baillon's had a bright green bill! See the stunning photos here.

Where do you get 5,000 top-class bird photos if you don't own a camera? Easy. You ask your friend Dylan Vasapolli. As my way of saying thank you to him, I give you my favourite "Vas" images: phenomenal without exception (although he would probably call them "fairly average"). These are from the USA, Panama, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. Enjoy!

The first twitchable Temminck's Stint in 29 years - it didn't take much convincing to get me on plane from Jo'burg to Cape Town! I enjoy a quick mid-week twitch as much as the next guy, but this was also a valuable opportunity to take some field notes on a bird that I have only seen in Asia. Includes a short video of the experience. PS: An American Golden Plover and Red-necked Stint were also present at the site - birding heaven!