It's snowing!

Day 2 of 2021 took me to the coast where, rather than going for a big list of regular species, I decided to twitch some rarities I might not get another chance of seeing this year.  I thus started with my old friend Bruno, the Dusky Warbler, in Bredene.  He was unusually quiet and so it took me almost an hour to find him but he eventually showed himself to chastise a Chiffchaff which had encroached upon his patch of reeds.  A male Blackcap was also there so this little park obviously has some special attraction for overwintering warblers.  Next up was the ridiculously confiding Grey Phalarope right next to the walkway around the Spuikom in Ostend.

You can even see its lobed toes and webbed foot in the second picture.  I also saw a Slavonian Grebe here but the long-staying Long-tailed Duck I saw in December somehow managed to elude me this time.  I then moved on to the immature Black-throated Diver in the harbour area before relocating to the beach north of Bredene, where it suddenly started snowing.  Not snowflakes of course since it was far too mild but a group of eleven Snow Buntings which appeared out of nowhere as I was watching the assembled Sanderlings and Turnstones feeding on the beach.

More and more Sanderlings kept appearing to join the roost and I counted at least 114 of them, with over 160 Oystercatchers in Ostend.  Other good birds I saw during the day included a first-winter Caspian Gull and a Purple Sandpiper, taking my year list to 76 species after just two days.