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!
