Dainty surprise

My birding starts to take a backseat in June as my attention is drawn to butterflies and dragonflies.  Yesterday, I visited one of Belgium's best reserves for butterflies near Couvin and it was swarming with Marbled Whites.  I saw at least 22 species, culminating in this magnificent Lesser Purple Emperor.  A couple of weeks ago, I tried and failed to find my lifer Dainty Damselfly, a Mediterranean species which is rapidly spreading north, after one had been reported in a Brussels park.  The following day, I went looking for butterflies in Belgian Luxembourg, not finding the species I was hoping for but getting this nice High Brown Fritillary instead.  I also took a few damselfly photo's and, once I got home, I realised they were Dainty Damselflies, the very species I'd tried to find the day before!

Cross-border butterflying

Last month, I spent a week in Basel.  I did a little birding, seeing Dipper, Black Woodpecker, a male Golden Oriole, and a pair of Ruddy Shelduck with no less than 10 goslings, but my main target was my lifer Reverdin's Blue.  A local had given me some good tips so I walked over the border to a nice little nature reserve just inside Germany.  At first, there didn't seem to be any blues whatsoever but I did manage to find a couple of males, although I wasn't at all sure at the time since they seemed to be lacking the silver-centred black spots typical of this genus.

Black and blue

I did some more evening birding over the weekend with a trip to see Nightjars on their breeding grounds along the Dutch border.  We got to watch several birds displaying, including lots of wing-clapping, and heard many more, with their churring song echoing around the heath as we left.  It was, however, my first trip to the heathland this year, so I went back yesterday morning to catch up with some of the diurnal specialties of this habitat.  A far too early start for my day off paid off with at least four Hobbies putting on a wonderful show as they caught dragonflies low above the Stappersven, which held two, summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebes.  The heathland was now filled with the song of Tree Pipit, Willow Warbler and Woodlark instead of Nightjars and I even found a dead, juvenile Smooth Snake along the road.  Best of all, though, were two very elusive species - Black Woodpecker seen twice and a singing Bluethroat.

June is by far the best time to visit the heathlands, which can almost seem devoid of birds, apart from the ubiquitous Stonechat, later in the summer.