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
