Winter warbler wonderland

The rest of my week in Eilat was much less productive, partly since I was exhausted from my long hike through the desert, but also because I spent a lot of time trying in vain to spot the Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels, which had been frequenting the Gulf of Eilat, from shore.  I thus ended the trip with zero lifers and just three new additions to my Israeli list; the Wigeon, a Great Crested Grebe on the sea off North Beach, and my 4th ever Hume's Warbler twitched in a city park.

Earlier this week, I then went and saw another Hume's Warbler in a park in Ghent, where it seems to be overwintering.  Amazingly, though, birders looking for the Hume's Warbler also discovered a Pallas's Warbler, which seems to be overwintering in the same city park.  It took me a long time to see anything, the first bird I found being a very vocal, female Firecrest, but I then heard the distant calls of the Hume's Warbler and managed to locate it.  It was very mobile so I followed it to another section of the park, where a small group of birders were already watching the spritely Pallas's Warbler.  This was only my third observation of this species and my first in Belgium, and it put on a great show, at times hovering so close to me I couldn't even use my binoculars.  As I was enjoying that, a Goldcrest also appeared and, although I know the 'crests are no longer officially considered as warblers, I still think of them as such, thus making it a 4-warbler day in Belgian city park in late December!