Déjà vu

It was a beautiful day at the coast today and strongly reminiscent of my last visit to the polders, especially when a 600-strong group of White-fronted and Barnacle Geese landed in the flooded meadow right in front of me.  The Zwin nature reserve, despite still being under construction, held a nice little group of Grey Plovers plus one Ringed Plover, and I found 5 clockwork-toy Sanderlings scurrying to and fro on the beach.  Other than that, though, it was exceptionally quiet and I was done by mid-afternoon so I decided to finish the day with a twitch to the four Waxwings in Blankenberge.  They've been in the same residential area for the past two weeks and have attracted a steady flow of birders as they seem to be the only ones of their kind overwintering in Belgium at the moment.  It only took a ten-minute walk from the train station before I found them but, as they were backlit, the only shots I could get were of their distinctive silhouette.

One last gander

I went back to the polders earlier this week for one last look at the flocks of geese before they start heading north again.  As you can see, there were plenty of White-fronts around but the Barnacles were the most numerous, with a conservative estimate of 1300 to 1500 individuals.  Try as I might to spot a Red-breasted Goose among them, all I could find was a hybrid Cackling x Barnacle, although I did eventually locate just two Pink-footed Geese in a group of White-fronts.  There were quite a few Grey Partridges calling, an early Marsh Harrier, and a Spotted Redshank.

Yesterday, Brussels had an exceptional day for rare birds.  I first managed to twitch an immature Iceland Gull which was found along the canal, arriving just ten minutes before it disappeared!  It was too far away for me to take its picture but another observer did manage to get some nice shots earlier on; see http://bru.waarnemingen.be/waarneming/view/97816840.  After that, I went back to Roodklooster/Rouge-Cloître where a Bittern seems to have taken up winter residence and has been teasing me by remaining hidden in the reeds on every visit I've made there so far this year.  This time, I waited till nightfall and finally got great views of it as it clambered up onto its roosting perch just as the last light was fading.