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.
