Feather forecast

Having seen my first singing Chiffchaff of the year on 4 March, I texted a friend to say it would probably be 10 days until they reached Brussels. 
Sure enough, the first one was singing in my local park on 14 March, after I had checked it and found none the previous day.  There were at least ten singing on my Brussels patch, which also confirmed a mass arrival during the night of 13-14 March.  This handsome Grey Wagtail was coming into breeding plumage, Kingfishers were busy displaying, and I found three species of butterfly, including the first Small White of the year for the Brussels region.  I predict scattered showers of singing Blackcaps any day now!

Signs of spring

I spent a nice, sunny day at the coast yesterday and the conditions were warm enough for this Peacock, my first butterfly of the year, to appear.  Lots of Skylarks were singing, as was a single, early Chiffchaff, and the first Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets were back on their breeding grounds. 
The main targets of my trip, though, were some lingering wintering visitors I hoped to connect with before they disappear.  I started near Vlissegem, where I managed to see the two overwintering Ross's Geese after another, failed attempt two weeks ago.  Ross's Goose is often kept in wildfowl connections and a frequent escape so birds this side of the pond are usually treated with deserved suspicion and regarded as escapes.  One of this pair, however, is wearing a Canadian scientific ring, proving their wild origin and making them the first truly wild Ross's Geese accepted onto the Belgian list.  It seems they migrated the wrong way to Greenland, where they joined the local Pink-footed Geese, then migrated onwards with their host species to the latter's traditional wintering grounds along the Belgian coast.  Funnily enough, I then headed to the polders, where I almost discovered another Ross's Goose of my own, although this one turned out to be a hybrid Ross x Barnacle Goose.  I then spent several hours waiting and kept telling myself it was better to do it now than in November, but the wait finally paid off when a Short-eared Owl started hunting just before 6pm.  It put on an amazing show and was extremely successful, catching three different items of prey, presumably voles, within the first ten minutes!