PGS

Illness has prevented me getting out birding since my last post but a Yellow-browed Warbler was found near a Brussels metro station on Saturday so I convinced myself some fresh air would do me good and allowed myself a short twitch yesterday.  It was calling as soon as I got there and eventually showed out in the open before disappearing again.  I didn't even bother trying to get photo's since it was so active, but a fellow Brussels birder did a pretty good job;

PGS by Luc Boon

Photographer extraordinaire Vincent Legrand had, however, been there the previous day and again worked his magic.  Yellow-browed Warbler, or YBW as most British birders refer to it, is so diminutive, almost everybody wants to shorten its name.  The French rightly avoid using their silly-sounding 'warbler with big eyebrows' and simply call it PGS, whilst even the Dutch with their relatively concise Bladkoning (leaf king) often shorten that to Blako.  In any case, it felt good to be out again and this three-letter bird certainly gave me a much needed boost of energy.  Today, I twitched a pair of Redshanks, which are probably just as rare in Brussels as YBW since we have virtually no suitable habitat for them.  It was only when I got home that I realised they were my 150th species within the Brussels region!  I also found my first Common Whitethroat of the year.