Little by little

I've made very little progress on my year list this month, with Black Stork being the only addition until last week, when I headed to the coast to try a seawatch.  Seawatching is not my favourite activity, the ideal conditions of strong north-westerlies usually involving plenty of showers, making it extremely unpleasant.  Indeed, the wind was so strong, I could hardly hold my binoculars still, let alone use a telescope, and I saw nothing at all.  Thankfully, though, I arrived at the IJzer estuary in Nieuwpoort just at the right time for the receding tide, with plenty of waders feeding on the newly exposed mud.  A couple of Little Stints were new for the year and it was fun to watch this Little Egret feeding in the shallows, with its jerky, run and stop technique in stark contrast to the methodical, open-billed, side-to-side sweeping of the Spoonbills.  I ended the day in Heist, where a Zitting Cisticola was displaying constantly.  This is one of the rarest breeding species in Belgium, with less than ten pairs recently recolonising a few coastal locations after they were wiped out several years ago by some harsh winters in succession.  Little signs of autumn migration were also around, with at least three Whinchats plus this nice Wheatear.

BE #214 (Little Stint)

BRU #112

The new white

Black is the new white, or at least so it would seem from my latest sightings.  The only addition to my year list over the past ten days was this pair of immature Black Storks, part of a group of 11 which had found some flooded fields in Flemish Brabant to their liking.  The fields also held quite a few Common Sandpipers; I counted at least five of them running around on the mud before the numerous and very persistent mosquitoes had me beating a hasty retreat.  Back in Brussels, this Black Swan was fighting with the pigeons and Egyptian Geese for bread in a city park.  Black Swan is an introduced exotic which breeds in small numbers in Belgium but I have never seen one in Brussels before.  It being out of the water, I managed to read the inscription on its metal ring and so am waiting to find out where exactly it has come from.

BE #213 (Black Stork)

BRU #112 (Black Swan, White Stork)

The waiting game

I've tried and failed several times this year to add Little Bittern to my year list but finally succeeded by sitting and staring at a reedbed where they are known to breed for two hours until one eventually relocated from one section of the reedbed to another, allowing me just a 10-second view of it in flight.  Thankfully, this Scarlet Darter was a bit more co-operative.

Other than that, the never-ending wet weather continues unabated so I've done very little else and am just waiting for the autumn migration to get going and bring me some more species to add to my list.

BE #212 (Little Bittern)

BRU #110