This short trip to the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores was very much aimed at seeking out one of Europe's rarest breeding species, namely the Azores Bullfinch, Priolo in Portuguese. With a world population barely exceeding 150 pairs, all restricted to the fragmented laurel forests on the slopes of mountains at the eastern end of Sao Miguel, the bird is not only the island's only endemic bird species, but the least common of the meagre 13 species of passerines that breed on Sao Miguel.

Travelling from December 2015 to January 2016 and traversing the vast state of Texas and its neighbouring New Mexico, this three-week epic covered over 7900 km and included some of the most iconic winter birding localities on the North American continent.

Plenty of adventure along the way, not least with temperatures hitting 29 C in the Big Bend of southern Texas, before then plummeting as I arrived in New Mexico simultaneously with Winter Storm Goliath, this resulting in raging blizzards, temperatures down to - 10 C, waist-depth snow and hundreds of miles of closed roads.