Confinement birding part 1

Well, that didn't take long!  I wrote last Tuesday that I was looking forward to seeing my first Swallow of the year and, on Saturday morning, one winged its way past during a great session of birding from my apartment during which I saw or heard 22 different species.  The above Grey Heron was one of two which also migrated over, as did three Redwings.  The biggest surprise of the morning, however, was a lovely male Black Redstart, which is a new addition to my apartment list.  A pair of Great Tits seem to be nesting on the corner of my building and return every five minutes with a new beakful of moss.

I'm amazed at the amount of moss they've brought over the past few days and wonder where they are depositing it all.  Great Tit was also the subject of a nice discovery when I decided to go through my notebook from my 2002 trip to Australia.  This was mainly to help pass the time and relive the experience, now that any form of travelling seems unthinkable for the foreseeable future, but also to make sure I'd recorded all relevant subspecies with a view to potential splits.  I soon found out that the Great Tits I saw during my stopover in Hong Kong have since been split as Japanese Tit.  Here again is one of my local birds with, for comparison, a stamp from North Korea showing the considerably less colourful Japanese form.

I then discovered that the Australian forms of what I'd recorded as Black-winged Stilt, Clamorous Reed Warbler and Richard's Pipit have also been split, resulting in a total of four new species for my life-list.  Who would have thought I'd be adding new birds during this period of confinement!

Full stop!

It's OK, my punctuation hasn't gone awry.  I'm well aware this, my first butterfly of the year seen during a walk in the forest today, is a Comma.  It's just that a comma would indicate there is more to come, whereas today felt much more like a full stop.  The confinement measures currently in place in Belgium mean that we are only allowed to go out for local walks or exercise.  The Sonian Forest is the only birdy place within reasonable walking distance of my apartment but, as with my regular patch just over a week ago, it was full of noisy kids, dogs running all over the place and far too many people to really enjoy.  Despite all this, I still managed to find three different Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, one of which looked like she may have been excavating a nesthole, a Firecrest, some Hawfinches, and got to watch a Kingfisher doing a strange display flight high up amongst the trees.  Not too bad, considering, but the birch pollen season has just begun so the forest is the worst place for me to be for the next month or so.  It thus looks like my birding for the foreseeable future will be restricted to watching for migrants from my balcony.  The past few days I've had groups of two and four Cormorants go over, as well as single Buzzard and Sparrowhawk, and I'm really looking forward to seeing my first Swallow of the year.  Little things, but we have to make do with what we can at the moment and simply hope that we'll once again be able to visit the coast for the breeding waders or do a long hike in the Ardennes.

Crazy, crazy times

These are strange, disconcerting times for everyone but, meanwhile, the natural world is going about its business regardless.  I finally heard my first Chiffchaffs in the Sonian Forest on 7 March, about ten days later than last year, which is strange considering how mild it has been.  Two days later, the first had reached my local park; it usually takes them a few days extra to penetrate into the city.  This Alexandrine Parakeet, taken through the bars of my balcony to avoid scaring it off, was checking out the activity at my peanut feeder.  Despite their bigger size and heavier bill, they are extremely wary and much more discrete than their boisterous cousins, the Ring-necked Parakeet, and this one didn't dare to come any closer to feed.  Last Saturday, I made a brief visit to my Brussels patch, where my old friend, the female Ferruginous Duck, now approaching the end of her 8th winter in Brussels, was busy sleeping.  It was extremely busy, however, almost like a bank holiday, since everything else is closed and the only thing people have left to do is take a walk in the park.  Stay safe, everyone!

City birding

Over the weekend, I was in Berlin for a city trip.  Originally, I wasn't planning to do any birding but, once I heard about a suburban lake with resident Red-necked Grebes, I couldn't resist taking my binoculars along since I very rarely get to see this species in breeding plumage.  Sure enough, as soon as I arrived at the Schäfersee, right next to a U-Bahn station, I could hear some very loud calls, a bit like a Water Rail with a megaphone, echoing around the circular lake as the three pairs proclaimed their territories.  I realised I'd never actually heard Red-necked Grebes displaying before, with a pair of displaying Kingfishers as an added, unexpected bonus in this urban setting.  I also tried another city park where some Waxwings had been reported but only managed to find Redwings, my first Fieldfare of the year, and a pair of Hawfinches.  On the second day, I visited Treptower Park along the River Spree, mainly with the intention of seeing Goosander, another species I'd not connected with so far this year.  I found a pair straight away but the woodland provided a wonderful surprise when I located this female Black Woodpecker excavating a nesthole.  I'd first heard the distinctive call and headed towards the source, only for the sound to repeat itself much closer.  Frantically looking around at all the likely trees, I just couldn't locate the bird until I noticed wood chippings raining down on me and realised she was right above me!

The male also came in after a while, as if to inspect her work.

Locating a Black Woodpecker nesthole is a birder's Holy Grail and I've never been able to find one in Brussels.  Overall, though, I was very impressed with just how birdy Berlin is, with a seemingly healthy House Sparrow population and plenty of both Greenfinches and Goldfinches, even in the built-up areas.