January - Golden Plover (Uitkerkse Polders and Zeeland, NL); I was pleased to see around 400 in the polders but this was blown out of the water by the 3000-4000 at Plan Tureluur.
February - Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Brussels); a pair seen excavating a potential nesthole on my Brussels patch.
March - Wigeon (Reeuwijksche Plassen, NL and Uitkerkse Polders); an excited, pre-migration gathering of perhaps as many as 20,000-30,000 making for an incredible sight and sound.
April - BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS (Bempton Cliffs, GB); an international twitch to the returning individual gave me my first albatross anywhere in the world.
May - Arctic Tern (Ostend); 5 seen well on migration and in direct comparison with Common Terns.
June - White Stork (Brussels); 1 passing high over my balcony was pretty much the only bird I saw during six weeks of being bedridden with two sprained ankles.
July - Cirl Bunting (Namur province); my first post-injury birding was a twitch to a male which had set up territory near Dinant, and my first in Belgium.
August - Pied Flycatcher (Brussels); one spotted from my balcony was an unexpected highlight of being stuck at home in COVID-19 quarantine.
September - Hoopoe (Brussels); it took me two attempts to find the bird which spent five days on my Brussels patch.
October - WHITE-NECKED ROCKFOWL (Ghana); the undoubted highlight of my birding tour of Ghana.
November - Common Crane (Cologne, DE); a large group first heard and then seen passing over my hotel during a non-birding, city break.
December - Hume's Warbler (Eilat, IL and Ghent); an unprecented two seen this month, both in city parks.
Blue-spotted Arab, Eilat
I finished the year having seen or heard just 178 species in Belgium, 206 in Europe, plus another 48 in Israel. Three of these were lifers - Blyth's Reed Warbler near Gouda, NL in March, the Black-browed Albatross, and October's Booted Warbler in Zeebrugge. My Ghanaian trip provided another 190 lifers and took my total year list to 571 species. Getting to see the legendary picathartes was amazing but the bird of the year title has to go to the Black-browed Albatross at Bempton since it is a family I have long wanted to see and we almost missed it as it only showed for a couple of hours on our first morning.
My Belgian list increased by five (Ring-billed Gull, Cirl Bunting, Long-tailed Skua, Booted Warbler and Pallas' Warbler) to a nice, round 330 species, I added three species (Pied Flycatcher, Hoopoe and migrating Woodlark) to my Brussels patch list, which now stands at 116 species for the reserve, and my apartment/balcony list increased by just two (White Stork and heard-only Willow Warbler) to 75 species.
Being out of action for a large chunk of spring meant that I did very little butterflying and dragonflying this year.
May 2023 bring us all lots more birds, butterflies and dragonflies.
