Big-nosed bruisers

A few weeks ago, I noticed the peanuts hanging on my balcony were disappearing at a much faster rate than usual and it didn't take long to figure out why.

I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you this is NOT a Ring-necked Parakeet, but its larger cousin, the Alexandrine Parakeet, which also has a well-established breeding population in Brussels and a few other European cities such as Cologne.  The big give-aways are the obvious red shoulder patch and the huge, stonking bill, as well as a noticably longer tail.  It seems they followed the Ring-necked Parakeets from their comunal roost and, now they've worked out there is good stuff to be had on my balcony, word is getting around.  I regularly have eight or more sitting around in the trees waiting and, yesterday, four of them were somehow clinging simultaneously to my bag of peanuts!

The Belgian Alps?

Twitching rarities often takes you to some strange places but yesterday has got to be the most bizarre twitch I have ever done!  On 22nd January, an Alpine Accentor, only the 10th for Belgium, was unexpectedly discovered within the walls of Bouillon castle by a group doing a bat survey.  It is still there so I finally made the three-hour long journey by train and bus to Bouillon and paid my entrance fee to the castle, where I had to walk through underground tunnels, past dungeons and a torture chamber (!) to reach the inner courtyard where the bird is often seen.  There was no sign of it of course, so I continued on along winding stairways, peering out of turret windows, to the highest point of the castle.  There were two other birders present but, after half an hour, none of us had seen anything so I headed back down into the courtyard, where I suddenly heard an unfamiliar song.  I looked up and there it was, blending in perfectly with the rock wall.

It was constantly in subsong, even when it was feeding, and, at one point, came to within a couple of metres of us to feed on some breadcrumbs.  What a gorgeous little bird and a joy to watch, having only seen them a few times before in the Alps, at elevations of 2000m or more. 
We're only a few weeks into 2023 but Belgium may already have its bird of the year.

Wild goose chase

Last weekend was my annual, winter wild goose chase around Zeeland and we'd picked a beautiful day for it.  We started with 3 Lesser White-fronted Geese, which unfortunately flew off before we could get the scopes on them, but then marvelled at the sight and sound of well over 3000 Barnacle Geese.  The day ended with yet more Barnacles, but this time accompanied by around 350 Brent Geese which came in off the sea to drink.  We also paid a visit to the Brouwersdam, where the sea was like a mirror and the unusually calm weather made for fantastic viewing conditions, allowing us to connect with displaying Red-breasted Mergansers, Eiders and Goldeneyes, lots of Common Scoter, Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes, Great Northern and Red-throated Divers, plus four Long-tailed Ducks.  A Green Sandpiper and a few Spoonbill helped make it feel more like the middle of spring than the end of January, and we finished the day with 70 species on our list.