Health issues have prevented me from doing anything other than birding from my balcony since I went to Texel so I thought I'd write a short post introducing my Brussels patch.
Roodklooster/Rouge-Cloître is a former abbey with several lakes and ponds bordering the Sonian Forest on the south-eastern edge of Brussels. As a result, it has a nice mixture of water and woodland birds with my regular visits there usually providing around 40 species, depending on the time of year. My day record currently stands at 56 species seen/heard on 29 October 2022. I am also the observer with the most bird species recorded within the reserve as shown on bru.waarnemingen, the local equivalent of eBird. This list, however, excludes exotics plus a flew species I have recorded from within the reserve but which were just outside the boundaries, so my actual list totals 118 species, the latest addition being European Stonechat from last October. I first visited it in May 1999, getting to see a pair of displaying Black Woodpeckers chasing each other around a tree-trunk in the nearby forest, something that I've never been lucky enough to see again in the 26 years I've been going there! Most years, I start the year with a resolution to visit once a month, but other things get in the way and it ends up being considerably less, focussing especially on the spring and autumn migration periods. Nevertheless, it is usually the first place I go at the start of each year to get my year list off to a decent start, with this year's January visit getting me 39 species, including a drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and a Cetti's Warbler, which is a recent arrival and still extremely rare in Brussels. Finally, it is on one of the main approach routes to Brussels airport, so there is a good chance you'll see it from the air if you are flying into Brussels.
