2014 review

It's time for my annual review of the monthly birding highlights of the past year (lifers are in CAPS).

January - TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL (The Netherlands); a nice male successfully twitched and seen well in a group of Common Crossbills.

February - Razorbill (Ostend); a new species for my Belgian list.  An adult winter constantly diving in the harbour.
March - Black Grouse (Hautes-Fagnes); another Belgian tick.  This species is almost extinct in Belgium but a long wait eventually produced two distant males feeding in the treetops.
April - Tawny Owl (Brussels); a juvenile seen well in a Brussels park having located it by its begging call.
May - Red-necked Grebe (Denmark); an impressive concentration of these beautiful birds I rarely get to see in summer plumage at a small breeding colony on the outskirts of Copenhagen.
June - TATAUPA TINAMOU (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); a female with chick seen extremely well on the Serra Nova trail.
July - PAVONINE QUETZAL (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); finally, distant but unmistakeable looks at a male perched above the Castanheira trail.

Spangled Cotinga at Cristalino Jungle Lodge

August - Crested Eagle (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); great looks at and adult both perched and flying over the Rio Teles Pires.
September - Pomarine Skua (Ostend); good views of a dark juvenile passing close inshore.
October - Firecrest (Belgium); traditionally the best month for them, they seemed to be absolutely everywhere whenever I went birding this month, including in the park right in the centre of Brussels.
November - Pied Wheatear (Mortsel, Flanders); an easy twitch for a first-winter male sitting on a fence and showing extremely well as soon as I arrived.  Very nice to finally remove the question mark next to this species after the only other one I have ever seen, fourteen years ago in Israel, was dismissed by all the local birders as a misidentication.
December - GREAT BUSTARD (Germany); wonderful views of 50% of the remaining German population of this vulnerable species and a long overdue lifer.

My bird of the year just has to be Great Bustard as I was surprised at how easily we found them yet we were extremely lucky to find such a big group so close to the road.  We also got to see the whole group in flight and one of the males doing display gestures, and they were even more beautiful than I had imagined.  My 2014 list for Europe reached 229 species, 206 of which were in Belgium.  I added another 415 in Brazil taking the year's total to 644, of which 10 were lifers.  Here's hoping 2015 will bring some more and wishing you all a happy and birdy New Year.

Cristalino advent Day 24

Most of you will have already seen this picture but, as the highlight of this year's stay in the Amazon, this jaguar was the only way I could possibly conclude my online advent calendar.  It was sitting on the bank of the Rio Cristalino just a week before I left as I headed upriver with two guests following a morning rainstorm, hence the hazy quality to the picture.  After a total of one year spent on the reserve, it is only the second one I have seen, and it sat there watching us for fifteen minutes before turning tail and disappearing into the forest.  The Dutch couple in question were perhaps the luckiest guests I have ever guided as, in addition to this magnificent beast, they got to see four species of monkey, yesterday's poison dart frog (the first sighting of the season), three tapirs, both otters, a southern tamandua, yellow-footed tortoise, red-tailed boa, a group of nine Dark-winged Trumpeters drinking at the riverbank, a male Amazonian Umbrellabird, all three large macaws, and a magnificent rainbow to boot.
Their luck even rubbed off on me as the same boat trip as the jaguar also produced a female (or immature male) Crimson Topaz hummingbird, a very scarce bird at Cristalino and a new one for me, the last of just five lifers I saw there this summer.
Happy holidays to all my readers!     

Cristalino advent Day 23

The still undescribed 'Cristalino' Poison Dart Frog

Lazy bustards

On my way back from Poland earlier this month, I stopped off in Berlin and hired local guide Rolf Nessing to hopefully find me another lifer.  Heading to our meeting point by train, I already noticed one group of cranes in flight and we soon found this group - notice the brown, young bird in the centre - right by the side of the road.  Stopping a little later to check out some geese (mostly Tundra Beans and White-fronts), we suddenly realised there was also a large flock of cranes feeding in a ditch to our right and counted around 600 of them, some of which were displaying.  As great as it was to see and hear them, they were not my target bird so we pressed on towards Buschow train station.  Once there, Rolf pulled up right between the platform and some rather average-looking fields and said we'd look here.  After just a few minutes of scanning, he announced he'd found them and I was looking at my first Great Bustards, 14 of them, just standing there in the middle of the field!  There was another, larger group in the distance, however, so we drove closer to get better views and try to count them.  We settled for 41, with one big male in particular regularly flashing his white feathers in some half-hearted display gestures no doubt prompted by the mild weather, before moving on to an area which held two Hen Harriers, two Rough-legged Buzzards and a Red Kite.  After a good morning's birding, during which we also saw around 70 Whooper Swans and two White-tailed Eagles, we headed back to Buschow for my train back to Berlin.  Just as we were approaching, though, a group of large birds flew over the road and my first reaction was geese before I realised it was actually the bustards, which had been put up by a passing eagle.  They flew right over the car and I managed to get a flight shot of the whole group numbering 57.  We had obviously missed a couple of birds earlier on and this total represents 50% of the remaining German population of this vulnerable and rapidly declining yet beautiful species.

Cristalino advent Day 22

Selina Hairstreak, male

Cristalino advent Day 21

The very shy and difficult-to-see Ruddy Quail-Dove

Cristalino advent Day 20

A Red-handed Howler Monkey just lazing around.

Cristalino advent Day 19

Idomeneus Giant Owl

Cristalino advent Day 18

Great Black Hawk with snake!

Cristalino advent Day 17

Starry Night Metalmark

Cristalino advent Day 16

Glossy Antshrike, male

Cristalino advent Day 15

The endemic and very cute Bare-eyed Antbird, which of course showed well for my group of butterfliers instead of the birders!

Needle in a haystack!

Last week, I was in Opole, in south-western Poland, for three days with the main target of seeing my lifer Taiga Bean Goose.  Ten years ago, I was looking at a flock of Bean Geese in The Netherlands when a friend thought he had found a Taiga amongst the many Tundras but, just as I looked through his telescope, a helicopter flew over putting the whole flock into the air.  Taiga Bean Goose has, therefore, been a very frustrating gap on my lifelist ever since, especially as we went on to produce the first documented record of Tundra Bean Goose for Norway, where Taiga Bean is relatively common!
My first morning in Opole started well with this female Syrian Woodpecker, a scarce bird for the region and Poland as a whole, right outside where I was staying.  We then moved on to Turawski Reservoir, where the first birds I found where a couple of White-tailed Eagles.  We ended up counting no less than seven of them dotted around the edge of the huge reservoir, before moving to a gull roost which held around 500 Caspians plus the odd Herring and Yellow-legged, giving me some good practice at large-gull identification.  Day two was goose day and a call from a local birder near Gliwice confirming the presence of geese saw us arrive at Pławniowice Reservoir to be greeted by the below sight.

The dark blob is actually thousands of Bean Geese (we estimated 4500) packed tightly together but excitment soon turned to despair when I realised they were mostly Tundras plus a few White-fronted.  The three of us thus started searching through the flock and, on my first look through the telescope, I picked out a Barnacle Goose, much to the delight of my companions as this is another rare bird for the area.  It took us almost two hours but I eventually found just two Taiga Bean Geese, picked out by the orange on the bill extending all the way to its base and confirmed by bill shape and neck colouration.  The others all had a look and agreed I had found my taiga needle in the tundra haystack!  From there, we relocated to another, larger reservoir at about the same time as most of the geese so that we ended up watching a huge flock of around 10,000 geese, most of which were Tundras; a truly amazing sight and sound.  Back in Opole, my lucky streak continued as I went on to find an extremely late Chiffchaff while the others were busy photographing the Syrian Woodpecker.  On the third and final day, however, we woke to thick, freezing fog and so only got to see a mixed group of europaeus and caudatus Long-tailed Tits before heading back to the gull roost and impressing myself by picking out a Yellow-legged Gull from the many Caspians, proving I had actually learnt something during my gull masterclass of the first afternoon.

Cristalino advent Day 14

The tiniest butterfly imaginable; Gyas Sarota (just look at those hairy legs!)

Cristalino advent Day 13

Unidentified but particularly colourful dragonfly

Cristalino advent Day 12

Unidentified tree frog in the bar area

Cristalino advent Day 11

Scarlet Macaws

Cristalino advent Day 10

White-whiskered Spider-Monkey

Cristalino advent Day 9

Theodora Metalmark

Cristalino advent Day 8

Agami Heron, adult

Cristalino advent Day 7

Especially for Eva, the 'fat bird', aka Capped Heron

Cristalino advent Day 6

Selina Hairstreak, female

Cristalino advent Day 5

OK, it could be a lot sharper, I know, but Cryptic Forest-Falcon was only described in 2003 and remains one of the most sought-after and most difficult species at Cristalino so getting any kind of photo is a major achievement!

Cristalino advent Day 4

Little Banner and Hystaspes Eighty-Eight

Cristalino advent Day 3

Red-headed Manakin (it's not easy to focus on such a small bird amongst so much foliage!)

Cristalino advent Day 2

Sunrise over the Amazon

Cristalino advent Day 1

As long-standing readers of my blog will know, it is time for another online advent calendar featuring some of my favourite pictures taken this summer during my stay at Cristalino Jungle Lodge in the Brazilian Amazon.  As always, day 1 is dedicated to the Bare-faced Curassows which hang around the lodge clearing and are often referred to as the lodge chickens.  This year, they stopped coming in mid-July, only for the female to reappear around two weeks later with these two little fluffballs sheltering under her tail.  Unfortunately, one of them disappeared, no doubt predated, after a few days, but the other was still going strong when I left the lodge in early September.

Golden goldeneye

As you've probably guessed from the lack of posts lately, I've not been out birding much the past couple of weeks and, when I have, there was very little to write about.  Today was particularly frustrating as I added three species to my year list but didn't get a good look at any of them.  First of all, in the Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud, I glimpsed a Lesser Redpoll as it flew over calling. 
In the afternoon, I went for a walk on Kalmthout Heath, where a group of 30 geese passed low overhead, their calls giving them away as Tundra Bean Geese.  I also saw a very distant passerine feeding at the water's edge, which could have been anything really but the behaviour and habitat best fitted Water Pipit, which I later heard calling.  I may even have heard a Penduline Tit flying over but I couldn't locate it and I don't hear them often enough to be sure of that one.  Other than that and several Crested Tits, it was very quiet but the above first-winter, male Goldeneye entertained me for a while before providing a nice photo opportunity as it swam through the glow of the setting sun.

Rocky horror!

I was in Holland over the weekend and went to IJmuiden pier on Saturday, where I enjoyed watching this Rock Pipit.  At one point, it flew up ahead of me and I thought I had flushed it until a Sparrowhawk almost flew straight through my legs after it!  I felt quite violated as it seemed as if the Sparrowhawk had used me to sneak up on the pipit so I was very pleased to see it get away. 
On Sunday, we went to the Maasvlakte, where an immature Long-legged Buzzard has returned (from where, I wonder) for its second winter.  It took us a long time to see it but we eventually got distant looks at it being mobbed by a Kestrel and with a Common Buzzard alongside for comparison.  Some Pink-footed Geese circling around above us where the first birds we saw and the very last were three Woodlarks feeding at the roadside, some other highlights being displaying Red-breasted Mergansers, a Green Sandpiper, and a high-tide roost of at least 900 Curlew.
Today, I twitched the first-winter Pied Wheatear which turned up in Belgium while I was away.  Now this is how a twitch is supposed to happen - I walked around 20 minutes from the nearest station and arrived to see the bird sitting in full view on a signpost.  I could have turned round and left after ten minutes but stayed a bit longer and watched it catching grubs along the railway tracks although it was a bit too far away to photograph.   

Never the twain

Last Friday, the last day of October, it was 20°C yet, despite the springlike weather, there was a constant stream of migrants.  I was at the coast looking for geese with a visiting birder but it was hard to take our eyes off what was going on in the skies, with large groups of Starlings, Chaffinches and Skylarks, an impressive formation of around 160 Cormorants, and smaller numbers of Redwing, Linnet, Siskin and Reed Bunting all heading south.  We finally dragged ourselves away to search for geese, only to spot a Short-eared Owl migrating along the sea-dyke as we moved into the polders.  Once there, we found around 200 Pink-footed Geese, a few hundred White-fronts and a single Barnacle as well as the obligatory Greylags and Canadas.  Migration still continued in earnest, though, and, just after midday, an Osprey drifted slowly over but the surprise of the day was the unlikely combination of 8 White-fronts arriving in v-formation together with a single Spoonbill, which had difficulty keeping up with the geese as they twisted down to join the others already feeding on the ground.  As we reached Ostend in the late afternoon, a Brambling called as it passed overhead, taking our day's tally to an impressive 73 species, but the day's migration was not done yet as I could still hear Redwings passing over Brussels well into the night.

Nutcracker sweet

Such was the view during a 16-km hike across the Reuland plateau on Monday.  This is the best place in Belgium I know to see Nutcrackers and the three of us were not disappointed, with eight different sightings of these shy birds flying back and forth, and another perched at close range for us to admire.  The day started off very promisingly indeed with both Hawfinch and Bullfinch almost as soon as we stepped out of the train, and the first half hour was rather overwhelming, with groups of Fieldfares flying in all directions and quite a bit of visible migration, mostly Chaffinches and Starlings, as well as four Rook.  We kept hearing and catching glimpses of Common Crossbills in flight and eventually found a dozen or so feeding atop a spruce tree as another sang its melodious, almost Woodlark-like song in the distance.  Having enjoyed the Nutcracker feast, we continued down into Stavelot, where I heard a call I didn't recognise and looked up to see a long-tailed passerine fly quickly past us.  The call didn't fit any of the pipits and it was too big for a wagtail so I was stumped until I got home and thumbed through the field guide for potential solutions, this flight call of Great Grey Shrike perfectly matching what I heard.  This brought our very successful day's total to 50 species, which, considering the total lack of gulls and shorebirds and only Mallard and Mute Swan representing the waterfowl, is amazing for this time of year.

Winter's a-coming!

I had another walk around my Brussels patch yesterday in the vain hope of finally finding one of the many Yellow-browed Warblers that are indundating Western Europe this autumn.  It was very quiet, however, although I did temporarily convince myself a backlit Firecrest was my target species until I got a better view of it.  Instead, I had to make do with admiring ducks but, when the Mandarins are in fresh, breeding plumage, that's not such a bad thing I guess.

Right at the end of the walk, though, I did have a little purple patch, running into a late male Blackcap just before I found a hawthorn tree covered in berries which hosted several Song Thrush, at least two Redwing and a couple of Brambling for good measure, both of the latter being my first records this season for what are typical winter birds in Brussels.  Winter can't be far off now even if it was 24°C here today!

Autumn colours

Following on from last week's Song Thrushes, there is now a big wave of Chaffinches, with no less than 152,000 counted passing The Hague on Saturday.  I tried my own little migration count at my regular patch on the edge of Brussels this morning but the weather wasn't really conducive to big numbers.  Apart from double-figures of both Song Thrushes and Chaffinches, I only managed to identify one Reed Bunting, four Siskins and a distant Sparrowhawk.  There are still a lot of Firecrests and Chiffchaffs in the bushes, however, and, after spotting this tiny Wood Mouse crossing the path, I managed to get a nice, autumnal shot of it surrounded by fallen leaves.

New beginnings

As readers of my previous blog will no doubt have noticed, I've been having all sorts of problems with it.  I have thus decided to create a new one here in order to keep you updated about my birding (as well as butterflying, dragonflying and more) around Belgium and beyond.
Autumn migration is in full swing here and Brussels Park right in the city center was full of Chiffchaffs and Firecrests this morning, with a few Song Thrushes still passing overhead after the huge day of migration on Saturday, which saw around 20,000 of them reported from two migration counts in The Netherlands.