Getting Raddical

Earlier this autumn, I suggested myself and a friend in The Netherlands keep each other informed of any Radde's Warblers that turn up in the hope we could finally connect with one.  A scarce, autumn vagrant to Belgium in very small but seemingly increasing numbers (2022: 7 birds, 2021: 1, 2020: 2 and 2019 none), it is, however, probably the most regularly-occurring vagrant neither he nor I have yet seen.  The number of records isn't really the reason but much more their terribly skulking nature.  Any birds that do turn up tend not to stick around for more than one or two days and, when they do, they forage exclusively in thick vegetation, making hearing their call about as much as one can hope for. 
The first of 2023 was a dead bird found in an Antwerp garden on 30 September.  Whilst not much use to the twitchers, it was at least a sign that they were on the move and there could soon be more.  During the afternoon of 5 October, the first live one was found at the Sashul, a traditional migrant trap at the coast, and it showed well until the evening. There was no sign of it on 6th but another bird was seen and photographed by two observers in the same location early on 7th.  I thus headed to the coast and spent two hours looking for it but only one other person got the briefest of glimpses all day long and it was only heard again an hour after I'd left.  Of course, the following morning it showed extremely well and was even seen bathing in some dew-covered flowers but I didn't want to go all the way back to the coast again so soon.  Monday 9 October, the start of my 5-days-in-a-row working week dawned and things got crazy.  The Sashul bird was still there, with another caught and ringed at the Zwin, and a third bird seen well just down the road from the Sashul in Zeebrugge.  On 10 October yet another was found in Ostend, whilst the Zeebrugge bird seemed to have a routine of showing well early in the morning, presumably at its roosting site, before dropping down into the shrubbery and being much more difficult to find.  This continued all week long so on Friday 13, following overnight rain which meant it was unlikely to have moved on, and working a late shift leaving me the morning free, I decided to give it another try.  I got there at 9am and could see the half-dozen birders all lined up and obviously looking/pointing at something so I literally ran the last 100 metres and was greeted by a beautiful Radde's Warbler sitting up in the open (albeit partly obscured by a stick) for a full four minutes!

It then started foraging and I got to see it really well for a total of ten minutes over the next hour, before it became much harder to follow amongst the denser vegetation.

My photo's don't really do it justice but there are plenty of much better ones online since pretty much every birder in Belgium has been to see it, and it is still there today, despite the first frost and cold nights of the autumn, with lots of Redwings on the move.  All this time, there has only been a single, 1-day bird in The Netherlands, out on the island of Schiermonnikoog.

More of Modane (part 3)

So, after two years and two aborted attempts, I finally made it back to the Vallon de l'Orgère at the start of August.  This time the bus was running and a friend from France even joined me for the first day's hike to the Lac de la Partie at 2500m altitude.

Unfortunately, it rained quite a lot while we were up around the lake so we saw no butterflies whatsoever but we did enjoy watching a flock (!) of around a dozen Alpine Accentors, and almost stepped on a White-winged Snowfinch.  The sun was out, however, for our climb up and once we got back down into the valley, so we still managed to see some butterflies, including lots of Damon Blues and my first Marbled, Mnestra's and Common Brassy Ringlets.

On the second day, I concentrated on the valley, adding a few more species and ending on this crazy puddle party at the stream we had walked down the previous day.  A single Common Brassy Ringlet was outnumbered by the many blues - I counted ten different species, including my first Glandon Blue.

By the end of the two days, I'd added 10 new species to my list, with another two photo's of the terribly difficult Pyrgus-skippers still pending identification.