Early winter?

The second half of September has felt like the summer we never had, with dry, settled conditions not exactly conducive to huge falls of migrants.  Indeed, I visited one of coastal migrant traps last week and all I managed to find was a single Firecrest; other than that is was deadly quiet.  I did, however, see at least three of the Cattle Egrets which seem to have recolonised the polders, making it the third new heron in a row for my year list following a successful twitch to a juvenile Purple Heron.  That was on 19 September, but the bird of the day was an early Brambling, only the third in Belgium this autumn, with the first having been heard just one day earlier.  There were also lots of Snipe around, some of which were out in the open for a change.

The polders felt rather exotic since it was probably the first time I have seen all three egrets together in Belgium, together with my first migrant Clouded Yellow butterflies in several years.  I was rather confused by a familiar sound I kept on hearing and which didn't seem to fit with either the early date or the summery weather.  Sure enough, though, I eventually located a group of around 50 White-fronted Geese which contained lots of juveniles, indicating a very successful breeding season.  This is extremely early for this species yet several, small groups seemed to have arrived, with perhaps 100-150 of them present.  Together with around a dozen Barnacle Geese, plus the unexpected Brambling a few days earlier, they were a timely reminder that winter is coming even if it does feel like summer. 

BE #218 (Purple Heron, Cattle Egret)

BRU #112

Uphill struggle

The title of this post could easily relate to my recent progress trying to add species to my Belgian year list but, in fact, sums up the antics of the Nutcrackers I saw during my annual, autumnal hike in the Ardennes last week.  As soon as I got to the Nutcracker capital of Logbiermé, one bird flew past me on its way downhill, only to return around five minutes later with a crop full of acorns.  This repeated itself several times over the next hour or so, with the uphill, return flights to their territories within the spruce forest looking very laboured since the birds were so heavy with acorns, they kept having to stop in a tree to rest every 100m or so!  Yesterday, it was me who struggled to locate this half-hidden, adult Night Heron, despite it sitting in exactly the same place as the immature I saw last summer.

It is surely the same individual, therefore, now in full breeding plumage, including a ridiculously long head-plume. 
This Comma butterfly, on the other hand, was much less shy, and seemed desperate to demonstrate how it got its name.

BE #216 (Nutcracker, Night Heron)

BRU #112