Autumn waves

Earlier this month, I tried a seawatch from Blankenberge pier but, apart from a single Gannet, a group of 7 Pintail, and a nice flock of around 80 migrating Brent Geese, this rainbow was about all I saw, despite the stormy conditions.  Since then, the weather has been consistently wet so the birds have been waiting for a drier spell in order to migrate.  Yesterday, therefore, was a big day for thrush migration and, sure enough, when I visited my local park this morning, I found my first Redwing of the autumn, with several more, as well as Skylarks and Chaffinches, passing overhead.

What a rush!

I was on my way to the shops today and decided to do a small detour through my local park, just in case, even though there has been very little to see so far this autumn.  All of a sudden, I heard the distinctive tsooweest call of a Yellow-browed Warbler, repeated over and over again, and rushed towards the sound.  I soon saw it feeding busily but was, of course, without binoculars so then had the classic dilemma of a birder caught unprepared, namely staying with the bird or rushing back for my optics.  I sprinted home and, thankfully, it was still in the same spot when I returned, showing really well.  It was constantly on the move, however, so this fuzzy record shot was about all I could get.  I spent a lot of time just enjoying watching it, the first in Brussels since the end of October last year, and, after lots of images containing nothing but leaves and branches, I finally managed to get another picture of the bird (below).  The same bush also held a pair of Blackcaps, two Chiffchaffs and a Goldcrest so there had obviously been a small fall of migrants last night, with around 10 YbW's seen in Belgium today, although mine was the furthest inland by far.  What a nice surprise and right on my doorstep too.