My Dusky Warbler twitch to the coast took my Belgian year list to 195 species, which is nowhere near my all-time record of 225 but not too bad considering I spent most of the spring migration stuck in Brussels. I thus decided to have a go at reaching 200 by the end of the year. There was, incidentally, a veritable deluge of Dusky Warblers along the Belgian coast this past weekend, with at least nine, possibly 11, different individuals observed on Saturday which is more than we usually get in an entire year. As I'd seen my one so well, I resisted the temptation to go back for more and instead went to the best site I know for Great Bittern. Within ten minutes of arriving at the hide, one flew right past and disappeared into the reedbed. One down, four to go! I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of it in flight but I did finally succeed in getting one of a Long-tailed Tit, a challenge I set myself back in February of last year and eventually gave up on after about a month of trying.
