Nothing is more typical of the month of September for me than this Migrant Hawker dragonfly. Although I saw my first of the year in early July, their numbers really peak between late August and early September and they can now be found pretty much everywhere. Last week, I guided a couple of visiting birders at the coast, with a migrant group of 20 Spoonbill passing overhead almost as soon as we stepped out of the tram! There were a few other migrants around, including several Wheatear, two Hobbies and an immature Cuckoo, with several Marsh Harriers showing well as they quartered the reedbeds. The following morning, I took another visitor to my Brussels patch, where we managed to connect with no less than 40 species, including Kingfisher, Crested Tit, and an eclipse male Red-crested Pochard. As we were watching several Chiffchaffs busily feeding, we glimpsed another bird amongst them sitting unusually upright, with subsequent views allowing us to clinch the id as a migrant, 1st-year Spotted Flycatcher, a species I'd only seen there once before. Vive la migration!
