I've moved to the leafy suburbs of Ixelles, where my new apartment has a lovely balcony overlooking
Parc Tenbosch. After 14 years in my old place in the centre of Brussels, I'd managed a birdlist of just 18 species, which in itself is pretty good considering the only greenery I could see was a few potted plants in our concrete courtyard. I thus spent most of the first weekend in my new place on the balcony watching migrating Coal Tits, Chaffinches, Meadow Pipits and one Buzzard passing directly overhead. At one point, I think I even had a Snipe on migration but I spotted it too late to be sure. I have a view of lots of trees, too, so local birds I've seen so far include Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper and Goldcrest. After just one weekend, my new balcony list is already at 25 species! My new neighbours include Jays, which I've seen every day so far collecting acorns (above) and, of course, the noisy parakeets (below). If you look closely in the lower right-hand corner, you can see the face of a Monk Parakeet, which have built several of their communal nests in the park.
