Monday 20 March 2023

Hide and seek

Our Chiffchaffs arrived en masse during the night of 15-16 March, with a dozen or more at a lake in West Flanders on 16th, and the first one singing in my neighbouring park the following day.  I also saw my first Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Avocets of the year, while a quick visit to my Brussels patch had me playing hide and seek with this female Green Woodpecker.


She was feeding in a field accompanied by another bird which seemed to be her offspring from last year, and immediately flew up and landed on the opposite side of a fencepost to two walkers who were passing by, so that she was invisible to them.  I watched this from a distance but then managed to get much closer, until she spotted me and did exactly the same thing again, occasionally peering around the side to check if I was still there.  I only managed to fool her into thinking I'd gone by hiding behind a bush, upon which she promptly dropped down into the field and resumed feeding again.


This very vocal Grey Wagtail, on the other hand, was doing its best to distract me since I think I may have located its nestsite in some thick ivy.