Out with a bang

Since I decided to try for 200 species in Belgium this year, I've added Bittern, the Crag Martin, plus a group of 21 Bewick's Swan twitched in the province of Antwerp last week, thus taking me to 198.  This past weekend, however, provided a final flurry with another four new birds for the year, three of which were in the same field of view on the Spuikom in Ostend!  Here, the wintering group of at least 31 Goldeneye were loosely accompanied by an immature male Long-tailed Duck, a female Scaup and a female/immature Common Scoter.

Long-tailed Duck (centre left) and female Scaup (centre right)

Common Scoter

I then paid a second visit to Bruno, the name affectionately given to the Dusky Warbler in Bredene, on day 23 of its extended stay.  It was calling as soon as I arrived and I eventually got to see it three times, although always very briefly, as it never stopped in the same place for more than a few seconds.  This picture by another observer is fairly typical of the views I was getting but it was still nice to see it again, being the only Dusky Warbler I have ever seen.  Already very pleased with this, I had a brief look around Ostend harbour before catching the train home and this gull stood out to me as having a very white head.  After lots of deliberation and help from various people, I'm fairly happy this is a second-winter Yellow-legged Gull, another year tick and my 202nd species in Belgium this year.

UPDATE 9 December - Belgium's top identification expert has commented on my gull and it seems it is just a Herring Gull after all!  Apparently, the pattern on the tertials is wrong for a Yellow-legged, plus the mantle should be a darker, bluish-grey.  This is why I don't usually bother trying to id immature gulls!