Stilt tsunami

Earlier this month, before my UK trip in fact, I went to visit some of the huge numbers of Black-winged Stilts that have turned up in Belgium, as well as the rest of north-western Europe, this spring.  It would seem a drought in Spain has dried up their usual breeding grounds so they moved north in search of wetter areas and, after the exceptionally wet spring we have had, found plenty of flooded fields and other marshy areas to their liking.  We would normally get around a dozen or so overshoots each spring but, at the start of May, it was more like 200 or more individuals.  They wasted no time and started breeding immediately; this female being one of at least three birds I saw on nests.

I counted at least 31 of them, which is more than the total I have seen in all my years in Belgium, whereas up to 50 have been reported from this one site near Bruges and the first chicks have already hatched.  The supporting cast included a Greenshank, several Wood Sandpiper, 4 Ruff still in winter plumage and this splendid pair of Black-necked Grebes in full breeding plumage.

Croeso i Gymru

I did a whirlwind tour of North Wales over the weekend, visiting the flagship reserves of South Stack and Cemlyn lagoon on Anglesey, as well as RSPB Conwy.  As you can see, it was a beautiful day, the best day of the week by far.  At South Stack, we saw the resident Choughs, Fulmars, Guillemots, Razorbills and four Puffins (out of an estimated eight breeding pairs!).  Cemlyn was, unusually, full of staging Arctic Terns easily outnumbering the Common Terns, with the Sandwich Terns at various staging of breeding including some on nests and others mating.  Other species we saw included a single Black Guillemot in Holyhead harbour, at least three Red Kites (which are scarce in this part of Wales) and a pair of Mediterranean Gulls breeding amongst the terns at Cemlyn, with the day list totalling 72 species.  Many thanks to Chris Tynan, the leader of RSPB Liverpool Local Group for a lovely day out.

Cemlyn tern colony

Booted bonus

On Saturday evening, 29th April, I was just thinking that the Swifts should be back the following day and sat down looking out over my balcony, only for my first Swift of the year to appear a few minutes later, hawking insects above the park!
Yesterday, I guided a group around my old patch of Mechels Broek, near Mechelen, and, recognising their distinctive screaming calls, spotted a migrating flock of 30 Swifts high in the sky.  It was a beautiful morning, with a singing Nightingale a couple of people managed to see briefly, a pair of perched Kingfishers and lots of recently-arrived Whitethroats entertaning us with their display-flights.

Having enjoyed a Kestrel divebombing a Buzzard, with several White Storks circling around, I was looking at another Buzzard when a second, much higher raptor flew into my field of view.  As it circled, I got to see the distinctive white-black underwing pattern of a stork, and really had to look hard to make sure there wasn't a long neck and beak attached but no, it had a very small head which hardly protruded from the body.  It was only then I realised we were looking at a Booted Eagle, my first in Belgium, just before it glided off high to the south-east.

Not yesterday's bird, this was taken in Israel.