Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Ice ducks
I should complain about the weather more often as today was a lovely, sunny and calm, although rather cold day as the temperature had dropped to minus 3 degrees overnight. I thus donned my thermals and spent a couple of hours around the Spuikom in Ostend. This brackish, man-made lake is linked to the harbour via a system of sluices and a great place for wintering wildfowl. All five of the European species of grebes were there today; a single Red-necked feeding near the sluices, a very distant Slavonian way out on the centre of the lake it took me an hour and a half to find, a dozen or so Black-necked, plus lots of Great Crested and Little Grebes. I didn't bother counting the latter two species, turning my attention to the 130+ Cormorants instead, but other birders with more patience tallied 123 Great Crested and 101 Little! As if the five grebes together weren't incentive enough, there were also several uncommon ducks I don't get to see each year. Best of all were the three Long-tailed Ducks (or ice ducks as they're called in Dutch) but the supporting cast included 4 Scaup, a female Red-breasted Merganser, at least 20 Goldeneye, and a single, immature Velvet Scoter.
Labels:
Ostend
Sunday, 27 November 2016
Nasty November
Well, November has been very grey and wet, which is why there has been very little activity on my blog of late. I only managed two brief birding forays this month, one to my Brussels patch and another in the Sonian Forest, where I'm pretty sure I found a Hume's or Yellow-browed Warbler, but it disappeared off into the forest before I could get a good look at it. The stream of Siberian Accentors seems to have dried up at a staggering 227 individuals since 4 October and there has also been a considerable influx of Waxwings with a handful of sightings in Brussels, none of which I was able to connect with. Instead, I have been busy working through my Brazil photo's and ocasionally making some unexpected identifications, such as this Purple-washed Euselasia (Euselasia euoras), which had remained unidentified since 2014.
In a few days, my annual online advent calendar will start again, this year featuring my favourite pictures from my three months in Brazil, so you can expect a lot more butterflies and exotic birds to brighten up the dreary days of December!
In a few days, my annual online advent calendar will start again, this year featuring my favourite pictures from my three months in Brazil, so you can expect a lot more butterflies and exotic birds to brighten up the dreary days of December!
Labels:
Brussels
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