I'm getting around a bit more now that we can travel within Belgium again but have been wondering what to do with all my enforced free time. Stuck in a dilemma whether to try and catch up on the birds I've missed so far this year, see as many butterflies as possible, or try for some new dragonflies, I went back to a great little reserve in Belgian Luxembourg on Thursday. This is primarily a butterfly reserve but, having not been south of Brussels so far this year, there were a few potential birds to add to my year list too. Sure enough, as soon as I got there, I was watching the first of many singing Lesser Whitethroats, soon to be followed by Yellowhammer (with recently fledged young), a heard-only Nightingale and one Melodious Warbler. The only bird I'd expected but hadn't yet seen was a Red-backed Shrike until I came to what looked like some perfect habitat, thought to myself there's gotta be one here, and then spotted this male right on cue.
I was there nice and early and the first couple of hours were all about the birds but, around 11am, the butterflies started becoming more active and this female Broad-bodied Chaser perched nicely alongside the track.
I thus headed towards the meadow where I've seen fritillaries on previous visits but was stopped in my tracks when another dragonfly landed right beside me. I didn't have a clue what it was but knew it was something I'd never seen before and it too sat still for plenty of photo's, allowing me to identify it once I got home as Green-eyed Hooktail.
As if a lifer wasn't enough, I then rounded a corner only to find my second ever Common Clubtail also sitting on the path.
Of course, there were some great butterflies around too but, since I took so many photo's of them, I'll save them for the next post.
