Booted bonus

On Saturday evening, 29th April, I was just thinking that the Swifts should be back the following day and sat down looking out over my balcony, only for my first Swift of the year to appear a few minutes later, hawking insects above the park!
Yesterday, I guided a group around my old patch of Mechels Broek, near Mechelen, and, recognising their distinctive screaming calls, spotted a migrating flock of 30 Swifts high in the sky.  It was a beautiful morning, with a singing Nightingale a couple of people managed to see briefly, a pair of perched Kingfishers and lots of recently-arrived Whitethroats entertaning us with their display-flights.

Having enjoyed a Kestrel divebombing a Buzzard, with several White Storks circling around, I was looking at another Buzzard when a second, much higher raptor flew into my field of view.  As it circled, I got to see the distinctive white-black underwing pattern of a stork, and really had to look hard to make sure there wasn't a long neck and beak attached but no, it had a very small head which hardly protruded from the body.  It was only then I realised we were looking at a Booted Eagle, my first in Belgium, just before it glided off high to the south-east.

Not yesterday's bird, this was taken in Israel.

Dribs and drabs

Maybe it's just me being extra impatient this year, but the summer migrants really seem to be dragging their heels.  Between my last post and the end of March, I'd only managed to add this pair of Little Ringed Plovers hiding behind the vegetation of a disused parking lot along the canal.

Earlier this week, I guided around Mechels Broek, where there were lots of recently-arrived Swallows and one Sand Martin hawking insects above the main lake and, yesterday, I found a Blue-headed Wagtail in Brussels, where it is an uncommon passage migrant.  That has been about it, though, until today.  It has been raining non-stop all day so today's birding was limited to looking out of my window but I suddenly noticed a brownish bird with white in the wings in one of the trees.  Fully expecting it to be a female Chaffinch, I raised my binoculars to discover a female/immature Pied Flycatcher instead, perhaps the biggest surprise of the year so far and the 70th species seen from my apartment since I've been living here!

Patchy birding

It has been horribly grey and wet since I last wrote so I've not done much birding and have only added another 6 species to my 2021 year list, which now stands at 112.  A long walk criss-crossing Kalmthout Heath failed to produce the overwintering Great Grey Shrike, which seems to have relocated elsewhere, but did give me my first Water Pipits in Belgium since 2014.  I also visited my old patch of Mechels Broek, on the outskirts of Mechelen, for a winter-plumaged Red-necked Grebe.  This is the closest site to Brussels with a good range of habitats and, consequently, a nice variety of species, but I've not been there very often the past few years, as some bad management and lots of disturbance seem to have reduced its attraction to birds.  There were lots around, though, as you can see, with good numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing, Barnacle Goose and White-fronted Goose, an irregular species this far inland.  Finally, an unsucessful twitch to the male Baikal Teal in the Dijle valley did provide my first Willow Tits of the year. Willow Tit seems to be extinct in Brussels so the area south of Leuven is probably our closest reliable spot for them.

Green neighbours

In a repeat performance of two years ago, I was getting ready to go birding yesterday when I spotted this very young Green Woodpecker from my kitchen window.  I then observed some interesting interaction as a Ring-necked Parakeet flew in and gradually edged itself closer, as if it wanted to check out its weird-looking neighbour, until the wary woodpecker decided it had come too close for comfort and frightened it away.  The rest of the morning was spent guiding at my old patch near Mechelen, starting with a female Green Woodpecker perched out in the open and finishing with a singing Reed Bunting.  We also got to see some baby Long-tailed Tits, with a total birdlist of 51 species.  Most impressive, however, was the large amount of Meadow Brown butterflies all over the place, although this Large Skipper was easier to photograph.

April Blackcaps

The few Blackcaps which had arrived by the end of March have now been joined by many more so that Blackcap song is absolutely everywhere at the moment.  Yesterday, I visited my old patch to the north of Brussels for the first time since September, seeing or hearing a respectable 62 species.  Quite a few of these were summer migrants, including my first Swallow of the year and a rather early Whitehroat, the other additions to my year list being Snipe, Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Stonechat and a splendid, male Bluethroat.

The greenish grass of home

I've done very little birding since I got home from Brazil, except for one morning of guiding around Mechels Broek which only produced around 40 species, the most exciting of which was a Ruddy Shelduck!  Migration is well underway but there has been little of interest to tempt me out until late yesterday afternoon, when a Greenish Warbler was found at the Belgian coast.  It was still there this morning and a short walk from Heist train station so off I went.  It was in a tiny migrant trap but ever so mobile and difficult to find.  I saw it about four times during the hour I was there and got good but brief looks as well as hearing it give its distinctive, disyllabic call a few times.  This is the first one I have seen, having made a long trip for the last one in Belgium well over a year ago when I only managed to hear it singing.  I was happy, therefore, just to see it but the finder of the bird had been sitting there all day trying to get some good pictures and eventually succeeded.  I continued down to the beach instead, finding no less than five Wheatears plus this Whinchat all lined up along a fence.

There were, in fact, lots of passerine migrants around, including another group of at least four Whinchats, two Pied Flycatchers, two Common Redstarts and a showy Firecrest.  Best of all though and totally unexpected was the Osprey, which first looked as if it was migrating along the beach but then circled around for the longest time before trying to catch fish in the sea.

Big Belgian day (and a half)

I've always wanted to try a big day in Belgium to see just how many species I can find but have never got round to it, mainly due to the early start required and lots of travelling this would involve.  I guided for a visiting birder from Texas at the weekend, however, who told me he wanted to see as many species as possible since it was his first time here.  We thus met up at 6am Saturday and got off to a great start with a singing Grey Wagtail and migrant Lesser Whitethroat right in the centre of Brussels.  We then took the train to Mechels Broek, just outside Mechelen, where a singing Cuckoo greeted us and we had impeccable timing, arriving in the hide just before a migrating group of 7 Greenshank and one juvenile Ruff arrived to refuel.  By the end of the morning session there, the day list was already at 65 species.  We then headed towards the coast and the Uitkerkse Polders, where Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwings and Redshanks were displaying.  Our amazing timing continued as we arrived near the visitor centre just as the two Black-winged Stilts, which had arrived earlier in the week, flew in, only to have moved on again by the time we headed back.

We also finally got cracking views of a Bluethroat singing from a fencepost, having seen just one in silhouette in the early morning twilight at Mechels Broek.  The biggest excitement of the day, however, was provided by a mixed group of wagtails.  As Yellow Wagtail was one of our target species, I had just said "If any wagtails are around, they'll be here amongst the sheep", when we spotted our first Pied, accompanied by three White Wagtails.  The group also held four Yellow Wagtails of the British race flavissima plus a very unusual looking bird, which I thought might be an immature or hybrid Citrine Wagtail.  I put the word out and some other birders at the coast managed to get some decent pictures of it with lots of discussion as result but, in the end, it seems like it was just an unusually coloured Blue-headed Wagtail.  We then had a mad dash to Heist, where a Ring Ouzel had been reported earlier in the day, but to no avail so we headed back to Brussels having walked around 18km and seen or heard 85 species in total.
The following morning, we met early again for three hours around my Brussels patch before work (!) to try and add some woodland species, culminating in wonderful views of a pair of Middle Spotted Woodpeckers.  Our final bird of the morning was a heard-only Reed Warbler, the first of the year for the Brussels region and our 96th species in one and a half days.

Late May round-up

Last week, I had another morning at my Brussels patch, seeing a total of 40 species.  The site has only ever had two records of Marsh Warbler, both of which were mine, so I was beginning to wonder if I might have been mistaken.  There were plenty of Reed Warblers singing but I then heard one bird which sounded distinctly different and was sticking to the bushes at the edge of the reedbed.  I got some brief glimpses of it but, crucially, I also got a short recording of its song, enabling me to confirm its identity as the third Marsh Warbler for the reserve, as well as reassuring myself about the accuracy of my previous records.  A male Bullfinch was a new addition to my site list, which now stands at 99 species!
I then spent a morning guiding a visiting birder around Mechels Broek nature reserve near Mechelen.  We managed a very respectable tally of 61 species with nothing really unusual, but fabulous scope views of Reed, Marsh and Sedge Warblers singing, allowing my visitor to get to grips with this difficult, skulky trio.
The weekend (both days!) was spent on Kalmthout Heath, where this Woodlark showed well as it took a  dustbath.  Tree Pipits were singing all over the place and I also caught up with some of the other summer migrants such as Common Redstart, Hobby and Mediterranean Gull.  As was the case at Mechels Broek, some constant begging calls led us to the location of a Great Spotted Woodpecker nest but, this time, we could see the entrance hole so I set up the telescope and waited for an adult to come in, with the hungry, red-headed juvenile appearing briefly to grab its meal.