Confinement birding part 5

Last Monday, my first Swift of the year passed high over my balcony in a north-easterly direction.  Obviously a migrant, this was around ten days earlier than I usually see my first local birds but, yesterday (Sunday) morning, there was already a small group of three to five hawking insects above the park, at one point even being chased by a Peregrine!  Yesterday was the second time I managed a day list of 23 species from my balcony, strangely with quite a few different species each time but I just can't seem to break the 23-species barrier.  Other than that, I've done a couple more walks in the forest now that the birch pollen season seems to be coming to an end.  The first was pretty birdless although I did get to watch one of two Reed Warblers singing away in the reeds of the Etang de Boitsfort.  I thus paid a bit more attention to the flowers than I usually would and was pleased to find these Yellow Pimpernels.
Today, I tried to find the pair of Ravens which were discovered over the weekend and look as if they might be setting up territory for the first time within Brussels.  There was no sign of them of course but my first Garden Warbler of the year was a nice consolation prize and there were a lot more butterflies around, including this rather plain Green-veined White, which should normally show at least a hint of a black spot on the forewing.

Since my first butterfly of the year just over a month ago, I've seen Holly Blue and Brimstone from my apartment, with Orange-Tip, Large White and Speckled Wood in the forest.  The biggest surprise of the day and perhaps my confinement so far was still to come, however, as I passed the boating lake in the ever so busy Bois de la Cambre only to notice this pair of Garganey.  This is a scarce passage migrant in Brussels and I usually have to twitch someone else's birds in order to add them to my year list so it was especially pleasing to discover my own on the way home.

Confinement birding part 4

Shower-time!

It rained on Saturday for the first time in at least four weeks.  My local Woodpigeons really seemed to enjoy it, jostling for position on the most exposed branch possible and turning their underwings up towards the sky.  I never realised they could be such fun to watch but then got thinking that I don't think I've ever seen them bathing so perhaps they only ever take showers.  After the rain had cleared the air of all that nasty birch pollen which had kept me stuck indoors for the past seventeen days, I did a three-hour long walk in the forest and immediately ran into this little fellow.

I was surprised to find one in the middle of the day but maybe it had just come out of hibernation (it still had a leaf stuck onto its rear-end) or was just thirsty and/or looking for worms after the rain.  In any case, it certainly seemed to know where it was going as it trotted right past me along the path.  I didn't find many birds although I did add a distantly singing Willow Warbler to my stagnant year list, the most pleasing sight of the day being this nice patch of bluebells, of which we don't have many and I rarely get to see in bloom like this.

Confinement birding part 3

It has been another very quiet week of trying to spot migrants from by balcony, with just a few more Swallows, a group of five Jackdaw, and 3 Herring Gulls of note.  There was also what may have been an immature Great Black-backed Gull, an extremely rare bird this far inland, but it was just too far away to be certain, my tentative identification being predominantly based on how big it looked since I thought it was a stork at first.  Things are going over, however, and two other migration counters elsewhere in Brussels managed to connect with a pair of Caspian Terns migrating over the city! 
Following on from the unexpectedly successful review of my Australian notebook, I also went through my notes from Mexico 2010, where I participated in the annual Swainson's Hawk migration count.

I was much better at keeping notes then so wasn't really expecting to make any more discoveries but, lo-and-behold, the 'Western' Scrub-Jays I saw in Mexico City have since been split as Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, thus making it my fifth lifer in confinement.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures of this 'species' I'd seen many a time in California, so I thought I'd show some transatlantic cousins instead.  At the top of this post is, obviously, a Great Spotted Woodpecker taken from my balcony recently, while the woodpecker I would regularly see from my balcony in Chavarrillo was this Golden-fronted.  This, again, is rather different to the ones in Texas and may well be split off at some point in the future.

Confinement birding part 2

I've not discovered any more lifers during the past week although an immature Marsh Harrier, which migrated northwards early on 1 April, became the 65th species I've seen or heard from my apartment since I moved in 4.5 years ago.  Other than that, it has been very quiet birdwise and I only managed one short birdwalk in the Bois de la Cambre, which is about ten minutes away.  I did find the avian equivalent of a high-rise apartment building though, as one large, dead tree seemed to house one or two pairs of Jackdaw as well as nesting Stock Dove and Middle Spotted Woodpecker!  My nesting Great Tits seem to have decided they have gathered enough moss and are now bringing feathers instead, whilst the local Woodpigeons are going crazy for the buds of one tree.  I regularly counted up to a dozen of them at once and this particular individual has taken a liking to sitting on my windowledge, presumably as it was warm being just the other side of the wall from my radiator.