Dip, dip, duck

Since my last post, I've made several unsuccessful twitches to various year ticks, including a fruitless morning at the coast in the hope of intercepting some of the mini-influx of Rosy Starlings Belgium was graced with for just a few days.  On Monday morning, it was a Great Reed Warbler singing in La Hulpe, just outside of Brussels, which had moved on by the time I got there.  My attention thus turned to some of the other stuff I've been neglecting so far, especially now that the dragon- and damselflies are starting to become more numerous.

Red-eyed Damselfly, La Hulpe

I arrived home from my latest dip to the news that three Garganey had been reported at a lake in the west of Brussels.  This is a scarce, less-than-anual visitor to Brussels and one I'd not managed to connect with anywhere this spring so I reluctantly headed out again, far from convinced that they would still be there.  They weren't on the lake where they had originally been found, but I soon relocated them sleeping on the island of another lake nearby, thus breaking my losing streak which had set it after my trip to the Nightjars.

BE #199 (Garganey)

BRU #108 (Garganey)