Mr and Mrs

My year list has finally been advancing in leaps and bounds since I saw the Franklin's Gull, and now stands at a respectable 179 species.  Whinchat is usually an autumn bird for me and much harder to see, at least in the places I usually visit, during their spring migration, but this bright male in Limburg was only my 2nd of the month/year, following another in Belgian Luxembourg.  I set myself two main targets this year - to reach 250 species in Belgium (my current record is 225) and 150 in Brussels (last year was the first time I kept track of how many species I saw here, totalling 112).  For the latter list, I just had to twitch this female Whinchat reported on my Brussels patch yesterday, since they are few and far between in Brussels.  Other good additions to both lists this week included a seemingly territorial Hobby in the Forêt de Soignes, in an area they have not been known to breed before, the first Garden Warbler of the year for the Brussels region I discovered on my patch, and three baby Tawny Owls.

Good to be back

I had a lovely day at the coast catching up with plenty of recent arrivals this past week.  I started at my preferred migration watchpoint near Blankenberge, where a single, male Red-breasted Merganser and one Arctic Tern, both birds I usually struggle to add to my year list, passed offshore.  The continued northerly winds meant that there was little songbird migration, however, other than several groups of Linnets, the odd Swallow and a single Wheatear, with a Sparrowhawk also passing along the sea dyke.  I thus moved down into the polders which were a real joy to experience since I missed them last spring due to the confinement measures preventing me leaving Brussels.  Sedge Warblers were singing everywhere, there were lots of groups of Bar-tailed Godwits, many of which were in summer plumage, and many more Whimbrels than I have seen before, including one flock of around 50! 

Other good birds included a flavissima Yellow Wagtail, 6 Greenshank, a pair of Grey Partridge seen really well, and two very different Spotted Redshanks; 1 still in winter plumage and this one about 3/4 of the way through its moult into breeding plumage.

I finished the day at the Spuikom in Ostend, a man-made lake with concrete banks which, until recently, was of little interest to anything other than ducks and grebes.  A few years ago, though, they built some shingle islands, which took the birds a couple of years to discover but now hold a bustling and extremely noisy colony of  Back-headed Gulls, Common Terns and, this year for the first time, a few pairs of Mediterranean Gulls.

A couple of Bar-tailed Godwits were here too, as well as a Common Sandpiper and a pair of summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebe, taking the very enjoyable day's list to 77 species.  I'll be back!

Frank the Yank

On Sunday, I undertook a major expedition to see the Franklin's Gull, which has been frequenting a flooded field near the French border in West Flanders.  It required a two-hour train journey from Brussels to Poperinge, where I rented a bike and then had to cycle for one hour against a strong headwind.  Upon arrival, I was greeted by the following sight. 

Lots and lots of gulls, accompanied by a few Shelduck, Redshanks and a lone Brent Goose, with the impressive church of Beveren-aan-de-IJzer as a backdrop.  I started scanning through the many gulls but the other birders present told me the bird was not there so I sat down and waited.  Thankfully, it appeared after just 20 minutes, arriving within a small group of Black-headed Gulls, but I was the only one who noticed it arrive!  It then sat down amongst the grass, making it ever so difficult to point out, but everyone eventually got on to it, even if it was sleeping the whole time and the only visible differences were the darker grey back and the wingtip pattern.  After a while, though, something spooked the whole flock and the Franklin's ended up standing on its own.  It was still rather distant but I managed to get a record shot in which its white eye-crescents are clearly visible.

Of course, there were several people there with huge cameras who got much better results.  After about an hour of admiring it, it flew off again, leaving me very satisified with my succesful expedition to my first lifer of 2021 and my 150th species so far this year!

Dribs and drabs

Maybe it's just me being extra impatient this year, but the summer migrants really seem to be dragging their heels.  Between my last post and the end of March, I'd only managed to add this pair of Little Ringed Plovers hiding behind the vegetation of a disused parking lot along the canal.

Earlier this week, I guided around Mechels Broek, where there were lots of recently-arrived Swallows and one Sand Martin hawking insects above the main lake and, yesterday, I found a Blue-headed Wagtail in Brussels, where it is an uncommon passage migrant.  That has been about it, though, until today.  It has been raining non-stop all day so today's birding was limited to looking out of my window but I suddenly noticed a brownish bird with white in the wings in one of the trees.  Fully expecting it to be a female Chaffinch, I raised my binoculars to discover a female/immature Pied Flycatcher instead, perhaps the biggest surprise of the year so far and the 70th species seen from my apartment since I've been living here!