I tried doing a migration count at the coast on Friday but, apart from being very early in the season, it was extremely windy, resulting in a count of just 132 migrating individuals of 20 different species over the course of two hours. The best were a single Spoonbill and two Marsh Harriers, with only a dozen or so each of Meadow Pipit and White Wagtail. I thus gave up and did a tour of the polders, seeing my first Avocets, Black-tailed Godwits and Ringed Plovers of the year, as well as some lingering Wigeon and around 40 Barnacle Geese. Today, I twitched this beautiful, male Pintail, a rare bird in Brussels, in Anderlecht, where I got an added bonus in the shape of my first Black Redstart of the spring.
