A day in SK

From Vienna, I headed into Slovakia for a day's birding near Bratislava with a local guide.
Our first stop was a park on the outskirts of the city where a male Red-breasted Flycatcher was busy proclaiming his territory.  After that, we made a beeline for my target species, which my guide reckoned we had a 100% chance of seeing!  Sure enough, we soon stopped at a line of electricty pylons to the north-west of the city and fixed our sights on a nestbox containing two fully-grown Saker Falcon chicks.  Despite hanging around for over an hour, neither adult came in but the chicks eventually woke up and were eagerly exercising their wings as they stood precariously on the edge of the platform, providing excellent views and showing off their distinct, cream-coloured tail band.  Satisfied with my first lifer since the Oriental Turtle Dove back in January, we moved on to some nearby fish ponds which contained numerous Red-crested Pochards before exploring the beautiful Morava floodplain along the Austrian border.  By this time, strong wind and light rain was making things difficult and we thus had to make do with heard-only River and Savi's Warblers but we still managed to see Red-backed Shrike, Collared Flycatcher and a Nightingale.  A male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker rounded off the afternoon, my seventh woodpecker in two days having spotted a Green from the car a little earlier, before the rain stopped play and I headed back into Austria, glimpsing some Bee-Eaters from the train just after it crossed the border.

Lainzer Tiergarten: 12 Points!

I was in Vienna last week and managed to get away from Eurovision madness in the city by having a morning in the Lainzer Tiergarten.  This former hunting estate turned nature reserve is on the western edge of the city and the wooded hills afford a wonderful view over Vienna.
 

 

It was listed as being good for flycatchers and woodpeckers yet this turned out to be a major understatement!  Almost immediately, I found the first Collared Flycatcher and, once I learnt their song, I was hearing them everywhere and even saw one entering its nesthole.

I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been anywhere with so many woodpeckers.  There were so many recently-fledged, juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers I was almost kicking them from under my feet!  Despite hearing a couple of other species, the only woodpeckers I saw for the first hour or so were Great Spots, until I managed to locate a calling Grey-headed Woodpecker.  After that, the woodpeckers flowed in quick succession with a Black seen in flight, a Middle Spotted, and the star bird of the day, a male White-backed!  I was admiring this big, shaggy wild boar when I heard a loud drumming and headed into the trees to investigate.  The drumming sounded like it was being made by something big, so I was fully expecting a Black Woodpecker, when something that looked vaguely like a Middle Spotted popped up on a snag in front of me.  It had the same diffuse red vent and faint streaking of a Middle Spot, as well as a bright red cap, but this bird had a long, heavy bill and was much bigger than even a Great Spot.  It was only when it turned and showed its white lower back, I suddenly realised I was looking at a White-backed, a species I'd only ever seen in flight before.

A five-woodpecker morning was way beyond my expectations but things didn't stop there, as the supporting cast included a passing Black Stork, a pair of Spotted Flycatchers fighting with a male Common Redstart, Hawfinch, Whinchat, Golden Orioles calling, several Wood Warblers, mouflon, Red Squirrel and my favourite wild flower; Aquilegia or European Columbine.

 
Just as I was thinking this place was simply magical and it couldn't possibly get any better, I heard yet another woodpecker giving an alarm call and looked through my binoculars in the rough direction of the sound only to find this bundle of fluff instead.

A baby Tawny Owl sitting out on a branch in full daylight!  This has got to be some of the best 'city' birding I've ever experienced so anyone visiting Vienna simply must go.  Do allow yourself plenty of time, though, as, after four hours of walking, I had not even covered a quarter of the reserve!

The BIG 300!

Well, it has taken me the best part of twenty years to get there but, today, I finally saw my 300th species in Belgium!  Since the Wallcreeper way back at the start of January, I've not even come close to adding anything new despite trying for both Tengmalm's Owl and Grey-headed Woodpecker.  Any potentially new species which turned up either did so when I was away, working, or were in places I simply couldn't get to.  Today, I wasn't planning on going birding as I had loads of stuff I really needed to do in Brussels but, lo-and-behold, a group of Whiskered Terns turned up at Het Vinne yesterday.  This is one of my favourite nature reserves but a pain to get to as the hourly bus leaves just ten minutes before the train arrives, entailing a horrible 50-minute wait in Sint Truiden.  I had a flash of inspiration, however, and hired a bike at the station for just €10, so I was already at the reserve by the time I would normally be getting on the bus, with the added bonus of a singing Lesser Whitethroat along the way.  Once there, though, all I could see was Black-headed Gulls flying around and my heart sank as I realised they had probably left.  It took at least fifteen minutes before I managed to spot a tern flying around way over the other end of the reserve.  It looked dark but was just too far to identify so a sprint around the lake ensued, more to avoid the impending stormcloud which was blackening the horizon than due to my eagerness to get closer to the terns.  Having arrived at the far hide, it didn't take long before two beautiful, summer-plumaged Whiskered Terns appeared low over the marsh and they even did a courtesy fly-by in front of the hide for me.  The excitement didn't stop there, however, as I then noticed a couple of male Garganey, and a medium-sized bird flying past in woodpecker-fashion as it battled against the wind turned out to be a male Golden Oriole, followed just a few minutes later by a Cuckoo.  What a wonderful few hours, despite the rain showers; the chores can wait!

The big 50

No, I'm not quite that old yet!  I had a big morning around my Brussels patch yesterday, ending up with exactly 50 species in a little over four hours.  It started promisingly with at least three Firecrests, a Common Sandpiper showing well, a Barnacle Goose hanging out with the Canadas, and a heard-only Reed Warbler.  After a couple of hours, I noticed I had over 40 species and so decided to do another loop to try for some of the missing ones.  This was a good move as, when I came to a spot I'd already passed on the way in, I suddenly saw this little beauty fly up on to a fence.

This female is only the second Wheatear I've ever seen there, no doubt forced to stop over by Sunday's heavy rain.  Whilst watching her, however, I noticed a second bird flit into the bushes.  Expecting it to be another Wheatear, I was very surprised when it turned out to be a stonking male Whinchat, a very rare passage migrant in Brussels and a new species for my patch list.  He was a bit too far for my camera but I ran down and told a photographer, who ended up with some great pictures. 
After that, things couldn't really get any better but I also saw the first Swifts of the year and had a wonderful flashback to my childhood when I headed into the forest and stumbled upon a beautiful carpet of bluebells stretching off into the undergrowth.

The Belgian Med (gulls)

Yesterday, I visited the polders around Doel nuclear power station, to the north-west of Antwerp.  I'd never been there before and was surprised to see just how many birds were around, not least this colony of nesting Mediterranean Gulls.  They have an instantly recognisable, catlike call, quite unlike any other gull, which was wonderful to hear echoing all around us.  Lots of Avocets were nesting in the same area, presumably using the gulls as extra muscle to help fend off any predators.  A summer-plumaged Black Tern was passing back and forth above at least six Spoonbills and, right at the end of the afternoon, we found a summer-plumaged Spotted Redshank, together with a very strange-looking, orange and black, male Ruff moulting into its breeding finery.  There were also quite a lot of butterflies around, mostly Small Whites and Peacocks, as well as several individuals of the rather localised Brown Argus, which were very cooperative as you can see below.