Bird of the century?

The very next day after me prematurely proclaiming the Moussier's Redstart, which, by the way, is still there, to be my potential bird of the year, all hell broke lose.  Proclaimed to be the rarest bird ever to be found in The Netherlands and the biggest rarity of the millennium, the subadult male Spectacled Eider discovered amongst Common Eiders on the eastern side of Texel was not on anyone's radar and everybody's initial reaction was that it had to be a hoax or an escaped bird.  There are just a handful of winter records way up inside the Arctic Circle, along the northern coast of Norway and off of Svalbard, and only a couple along the Pacific coast of America.  In fact, it's wintering grounds were completely unknown until the entire population was discovered amongst holes in the pack ice of the northern Bering Sea in the mid-nineties.  Frustratingly, the Texel bird was discovered the day before I flew to Malta, so a tense few days ensued wondering whether it would stay and whether or not I might have to cut short my winter break in the sun.  It seemed to be settled, however, and faithful to a short stretch of coast with rich feeding grounds, where it was very successful in catching mussels, starfish and crabs.  I finally got to see it on day 25 of its legendary (and ongoing) stay, joining the crowds of birders from all over Europe who have made a trip to Texel for this special bird you would normally have to go all the way to Alaska to see.

2024 review bis

2024 was not just about the birds since I finally added two long-wanted butterfly species to my Belgian list, namely Poplar Admiral and Cranberry Fritillary.  That takes my Belgian butterfly list to 84 of the 90 or so regularly-occurring species, 82 of which I have photographed.  A trip to Berlin also got me the extinct-in-Belgium Large Chequered Skipper, and my first visit to Corsica got me another 5 new species; Bath White, Cardinal, the endemics Corsican Wall Brown and Corsican Small Heath, plus a brief glimpse of a Nettle-tree Butterfly.  My 9th new butterfly species of the year were some skippers I photographed in Bourg-St-Maurice in September which have been identified as Oberthür's Grizzled Skipper, one of the species I still need to find in Belgium, where it is extremely rare and localised.

My expedition to the Hautes Fagnes for Cranberry Fritillary also got me my first Spearhead Bluet/Northern Damselfly, taking me to 40 species of odonata in Belgium, and I added Southern Skimmer, a species I'd only seen in Israel before, to my European list.

2024 review

It's a month late thanks mainly to the unexpected Moussier's Redstart, which kicked off my 2025 list in style, but here is my review of 2024, starting with the monthly bird highlights (lifers in CAPS).

January - Bittern (West Flanders); a visiting birder wanted to see Bittern so I took him to the best place I know, hoping we might get to see one.  Our first view was of a distant bird sitting in a waterlogged field but, later on, it or another appeared right in front of the hide and started blowing bubbles in the water to attract fish.  Crazy, prolonged views of this unusual behaviour ensued so my visitor was thrilled.

February - Black Woodpecker (Brussels); Black Woodpecker is always difficult to see in Brussels so I was happy to locate a female by her calls.  She was perched on a treetrunk and, while I was watching her, a Green Woodpecker, climbed up the same tree and stopped just below her!

March - Common Crane (Brussels); with prolonged easterlies pushing Cranes over Brussels and after several near misses, I finally managed to spot a migrating group of around 70 from my balcony.

April - HERMIT WARBLER (Eugene, OR); the main target of my US trip, I finally saw one amongst a crazy fall of 100+ warblers on my last morning in Oregon before flying home.

May - Savi's Warbler (Uitkerkse Polders); one seen singing while guiding was the first I have seen in Belgium, having only heard it before.

June - CORSICAN NUTHATCH (Corsica); a morning with a local birdguide was successful in finding all three of my target species during a short, last-minute getaway.

July - Raven (Namur and Antwerp); a noisy family at close range during a butterfly trip in Namur, with another 1 or 2 heard over Kalmthout Heath, where it is considerably rarer.

August - Hen Harrier (Brussels); autumn migration got underway early with a 2nd-year male passing over my balcony together with a female Marsh Harrier.

September - Siberian Stonechat (Ostend); a twitch to the immature showing extremely well at the coast and my first in Belgium.

October - Rose-coloured Starling (Texel); another twitch to the nice, pink adult which spent several months in a Den Burg garden.

November - Tawny Owl (Brussels); one heard twice from my living room was very unexpected since they have never been recorded in my neighbouring park (and I have listened for them many times).  Presumably a young bird dispersing from the nearby forest, it was not heard again.

December - Red-necked Grebe (Amsterdam); always nice to see, this overwintering bird was easy to find in the suburbs of Amsterdam.

I thus ended the year with a total of 409 species, 221 of which were in Europe and 163 in Belgium.

I got 12 lifers during the year (9 in the US and 3 in Corsica), with Ross's Goose and Siberian Stonechat being my only Belgian ticks.  The Ross's Geese were not only new for me but for all Belgian birders, being the first proven-wild birds accepted to the Belgian list.  My balcony list increased by three species (Common Crane, Hen Harrier and the heard-only Tawny Owl) to 80 species, which is pretty impressive for the centre of Brussels. 
Whilst the Hermit Warbler and Corsican Nuthatch were the main targets of their respective trips, I think my bird of the year has to be the adult Rose-coloured Starling I went all the way to Texel to twitch since I had only ever seen a drab juvenile some 26 years previously!