It's been a very wet and windy start to the year so the only birding I have done outside of Brussels so far was a return visit to the winter warbler wonderland of Ghent, where I again got to see both Hume's and Pallas's Warblers as well as hearing a Yellow-browed Warbler near the station. My first birding of the year was giving a guided tour around my Brussels patch, which provided 42 species, starting with a Water Rail out in the open with a fish in its beak, and ending on a perched Kingfisher. During a walk in the forest, I got to watch a lovely group of Chaffinches and Brambling bathing in a puddle but, of course, I didn't have my camera with me. My local park has had Goldcrest, Firecrest and Blackcap, and I made a detour to see this 'new' Ferruginous Duck on the canal, where she swam so close I even managed to get this crappy record shot with my phone. Since our long-staying bird died, this young female is the only one to be seen regularly in Brussels although she only occasionally turns up on the canal where she can usually be found hanging out with the Pochards and Tufted Ducks.
