Pintail perfect

I was at Slimbridge WWT last weekend and the Pintails were swimming around right in front of the first hide providing some rare, close-up photographic opportunities of these usually shy ducks.  There were around 60 Bewick's Swans making a lot of noise, and a hunting Marsh Harrier put the assembled waders, including at least 200 Black-tailed Godwit and possibly double that amount of Dunlin together with a Little Stint, into the air where they wheeled around in Starling-like formations.  A very distant Barn Owl made a brief appearance and a Water Rail stood out in the open underneath one of the feeders.  The biggest impression of the day, however, was made by the gorgeous Orange-headed Thrush in the tropical house, which we passed through in order to warm up a little.  A couple of days later, I took the train from London to Nottingham and counted seven different Red Kites, proving that the English reintroduction scheme has been a great success.  In comparison, I saw just one Buzzard during the entire journey.  Lastly, I made a brief visit to Rutland Water, where I recorded 56 different species in just a couple of hours between snow showers.  The biggest surprise was a Cetti's Warbler spluttering its song from within a reedbed but there were also lots of Goldeneye, both egrets, a Green Woodpecker and my first Mistle Thrushes of the year. 
Back in Brussels, I stood at a Starling roost yesterday for half an hour and counted the birds arriving, which was no mean feat.  The groups, several of them containing well over 100 individuals, were coming in very fast and disappearing into the bushes before I could count them properly but I still managed a conservative total of 2040!        

0-100 in 20 days

In order to get our year-lists off to a good start, I had a little race with a few friends to see who would reach 100 species first.  I was the first to reach 100 species today, with 5 Hawfinches at my Brussels patch.  It was very good for finches in general, with a large group of Chaffinches plus a few Greenfinches, and a flock of around 40 Siskins.  This bold-as-brass Robin came right up to me expecting some food so I felt quite guilty taking its photo without offering anything in return.

I then tried Woluwe Park, which is the most reliable spot in Brussels for Middle Spotted Woodpecker, and sure enough, after several Great Spotted Woodpecker sightings, eventually found one with an entirely red cap.  The successful finch-day continued with a Lesser Redpoll passing overhead, taking my 2015 list to 102 so far, only four of which were outside of Belgium.

Rush, rush

At long last, it has finally stopped raining!  We have had the equivalent of a usual January's total rainfall in the past two weeks so I've not been out much since last weekend.  Today, though, was very different with blue skies and some weak sunshine, so I headed to Kalmthout Heath.  The forest was, as is usually the case in winter, very quiet, until I suddenly found myself surrounded by a huge mixed flock of various tits, dozens of Goldcrests, Short-toed Treecreeper, and both Great and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.  At the same time, a Black Woodpecker made a brief appearance, no doubt checking what all the commotion was about.  Above the heath, there were lots of lines of White-fronted Geese which all converged on the flooded meadow; I counted at least 400 of them on the ground with still more to arrive.
By lunchtime, though, I was starting to feel cold so I decided to warm up on the train on my way to the suburbs of Ghent, where some Penduline Tits seem to be overwintering.  Strange place for what is usually a rare passage migrant in Belgium, I thought, until I arrived and saw bulrushes everywhere!  I don't think I've ever seen quite so many, so the Penduline Tits have got plenty of food to see them through the winter, and I soon found them feeding quietly on the seedheads.  There was even a Siberian Chiffchaff (below) doing exactly the same, although I couldn't tell if it too was eating the seeds or perhaps gleaning insects.

Pretty as a picture

 

Yesterday, my planned day out with my Dutch birding friends turned into a day of twitching around Rotterdam.  Only one of our three targets showed, but it was the most important one as it was a lifer - Oriental Turtle Dove.  Unfortunately, a Magpie saw it at about the same time we did and chased it off almost immediately so we didn't get prolonged views, but enough to tell what it was.
After that, we tried walking around the Ackerdijkse Plassen in the wind, where a Great White Egret feeding opposite two Black Swans provided an interesting contrast.  An immature Peregrine zipped passed us in the blink of an eye and two huddled up White Storks seemed to be enjoying the conditions about as much as we were.  Before we gave up altogether, though, I took a few pictures of this nice, mixed group of ducks (Wigeon, Gadwall and one female Tufted) and was really pleased with this one as it almost looks like it could be a watercolour by Sir Peter Scott.

Sandpiper surprise

On Sunday, I had a long, sunny day at the coast, starting in Ostend.  I was pleased to see a Rock Pipit well, a species I often only hear, and the Spuikom held the above two winter-plumaged Black-necked Grebes as well as a female Red-breasted Merganser, all of which were good additions to my new year list.  Most unexpected of all, however, was a Common Sandpiper.  It seems the mild winter has encouraged a few of them to try to overwinter, especially along the coast.  I then moved on to the polders, where the geese seemed to be few and far between at first, with just a few, small groups of White-fronts.  I eventually found some Barnacles, though, and saw a small group of Pink-feet in flight but, other than that, plus several Grey Partridges displaying, it was fairly quiet.  I even tried to hang on for the Short-eared Owls to appear but the combination of cold and a full moon meant that I gave up well before they came out to play.  Nevertheless, I finished the day with a year list of 72 species, which is not bad going for the first week of January.

Creepy New Year!

I had a nail-biting start to the New Year as a Wallcreeper was found in Dinant on 30 December but yesterday was the first chance I had to go and see it.  Thankfully, it stayed around long enough for me to add it to my Belgian list, which now stands at 299 species!  I panicked a little when I arrived in Dinant and couldn't find any other birders but walked the couple of kilometres along the Meuse to the Rocher Bayard (above), where it has also been spending some time, to see a decent-sized crowd staring at the rockface.  A Dutch birder, who had come especially, immediately let me get a good look through his telescope before trying to give me directions, but I was then able to watch it for at least half an hour, fluttering around the rockface and flashing its incredible, scarlet wings.  It was, of course, too far away for me to get any kind of photograph of it but those with much more professional equipment got some great results; see http://waarnemingen.be/waarneming/view/96911944.
Interestingly, the finders had been prospecting all the likely-looking cliffs in the area, convinced that there must be an overwintering Wallcreeper or two somewhere in Wallonia and, after 26 hours of searching, struck it lucky with this mega bird for Belgium.  Spurred on by this and despite having never been to the area, I then walked up a steep-sided valley just to the north of Dinant in the hope of finding a Dipper, a species I would normally have to make a special trip to see each year, and one almost flew straight into me!  Sometimes, birding can be so straightforward.