My YBW/PGS/Blako ended up staying for four days, finally disappearing during the night of 7-8 October just as it did last year! I spent some time with it every day, helping several other birders to connect with both it and the Pied Flycatcher, but I also managed a trip to the coast to look for other rarities. I got to see the Red-breasted Flycatcher again in Zeebrugge, where there was a small fall of Song Thrushes plus my first Redwing of the winter, but failed to find the Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler, Barred Warbler and Grey Phalaropes which had been reported. I finished up in Ostend, where the recent storms had washed up all sorts of tasty morsels onto the beach, resulting in a feeding frenzy of several hundred Herring Gulls plus a nice collection of waders. I counted at least 6 Dunlin, 2 Sanderling, 2 Knot and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit (showing its barred tail for a change), in addition to the always photogenic and extremely confiding high tide roost of Turnstones.
