Golden tigers

Long-tailed Blue; or tiger blue as it is known in Dutch due to the stripey pattern of the underwing, is another migratory butterfly which is scarce in Belgium but seems to be undertaking a minor invasion this year.  One group of them have found a patch of Broad-leaved Pea, one of its host plants, along the River Sambre near the French border and seemed to be hanging around so I gave it a try earlier this week.  I went before work and so arrived before there was any activity but, after about fifteen minutes of waiting, I spotted one on a flower and, by 11:30am, when I had to leave for work, there were at least three flying around, with one female observed ovipositing.  It is doubtful whether the caterpillars will be able to survive a Belgian winter but I was very pleased at finding my 11th new species of butterfly in Belgium this year, and the close-up photo's reveal some subtle, golden scaling which wasn't obvious in the field.

Bathtime!

Bath White, or rather the cryptic pair of species it has been split into, is a migrant and extremely rare visitor to Belgium.  There were a handful of sightings in 2018 and the last time it was recorded before that was in 2006!  This past week, however, they have been seen regularly in the Maas valley, so I gave it a try yesterday and saw five of them on migration.  They were all heading south and only one stopped long enough for me to get a good look in the binoculars, but it was off again before I could get a picture.  There were lots of Pale Clouded Yellows around too, which were a lot more cooperative.

In fact, I managed to find 11 species of butterfly, including my first Painted Lady of the year, which is pretty good now that butterfly season is almost over.  There were a lot of birds too, and the big collection of ducks included a Pintail, two Wigeon, and two Ferruginous Ducks.

On the Dutch side of the river, was this Bar-tailed Godwit and a migrating Honey Buzzard, making a tally of 53 species in just over four hours spent there.

Red start

September got off to a nice, red start as this handsome Redstart was the very first bird I saw upon my arrival in the nature reserve at Heist during a two-day visit to the coast.  There were lots of Redstarts around as well as several Pied Flycatchers, plus a group of at least seven Wheatear lined up along a fence, accompanied by a Whinchat and Whitethroat.

Despite arriving around midday, I also got to see some migration with groups of 22+3 Spoonbill, 20 Pintail and 6 Grey Heron passing over.  I then moved on to Ostend harbour where I had a go at counting the high-tide roost of Turnstones but gave up when I reached 200 of them, a few of which were still looking snazzy in their breeding plumage.

Hiding amongst them was a lone, and rather early Purple Sandpiper, the confiding nature of the Turnstones allowing for close-up views of both species.

The following morning, I had hoped to do a seawatch but the weather was wrong so all I managed was a distant group of three unidentified ducks.  Instead, I spent some time at the IJzermonding estuary in Nieuwpoort, where I found around a dozen Knot and at least eight Little Egrets, before twitching a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper in the polders.