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!
