Little things

I've been out of Belgium for a while but will write about that later.  Before I left, though, I did a short walk in the Sonian forest, finally locating the top-secret location of the only colony of Fire Salamanders in the Brussels Region!  It was very quiet birdwise, allowing me to notice some little things I would normally walk past, such as this tiny, metallic green weevil.  There was also a Wren which was really showing off, so I decided to take a few photos and was very pleased with the result.

Wintry surprise

My Viennese trip also provided my first dragonflies of the year, including a couple of species I'd only ever seen once or twice before, so I made a point of paying more attention to them once I got back to Belgium.  A visit to my Brussels patch got me this nice image of a male Scarce Chaser, a species which is no longer scarce here having rapidly colonised Brussels over the past five to ten years.  I then noticed a damselfly and managed to take just one picture but it turned out to be my lifer Winter Damselfly!  This species is quite widespread but far from numerous and notoriously difficult to identify since its drab colouration makes it easy to confuse with teneral individuals of the much commoner species.  As a result, it was the commonest Belgian odonate I'd not yet seen, so I was pleased to fill that hole in my list without trying, especially since I've made a few, concentrated attempts to look for it in the past.

Double Grail

I was back in Vienna earlier this month and had set my hopes on seeing my most wanted European butterfly.  The weather was terrible, however, with just one sunny day during my week-long stay but at least that meant the butterflies would be active during my one and only chance to explore the Viennese section of the Donau-Auen National Park.  After a couple of hours, I'd had a frustratingly brief glimpse of what might have been my target species disappearing behind the bushes but that was all so I was relieved to find this information panel confirming I was in the right area.

I decided to linger nearby and, sure enough, soon spotted a magnificent Southern Festoon within 150 metres of the sign!

Very pleased that my research had paid off, I continued my walk, hearing a Black Woodpecker calling.  I managed to find the source of the calls but then noticed it going to a hole in a birch tree, out of which popped a baby Black Woodpecker's head!  This is only the second time I've managed to locate the Holy Grail that is a Black Woodpecker nest, and the first which contained young.

With a Great Spotted Woodpecker nest also found in a busy, city-centre park, Vienna has cemented its reputation of woodpecker wonderland gained from my first visit there 11 years ago.

Amazonian returns part 3

For the last two days of my short week in French Guiana, I headed into Cayenne and stayed at the Place des Amandiers, which seemed to be a birding hotspot.  The extremely common Carib Grackles were hopping around the breakfast tables and the park opposite was full of birds, not least the rather surreal combination of Ruddy Turnstones bathing in rainwater pools alongside Yellow-hooded Blackbirds.

I also really enjoyed seeing the ever-so-cute Pied Water-Tyrant and Yellow Oriole, and the very first bird I saw on the nearby Sentier de Montabo was this Green-tailed Jacamar!

All too soon, it was time to head back to Belém, where I had a couple more days before heading home and discovered a Reddish Hermit lek, which was a wonderful way to end my two weeks back in the amazing Amazon.

Amazonian returns part 2

From Belém, I took the weekly flight to Cayenne, French Guiana.  Trying to get around there without a car was almost impossible, especially since the country's only bird guide was unavailable at the time, but I found the lovely little Amazone Nature Lodge, slap bang in the jungle, who were able to offer a package including transfer from and back to the airport.  This is more of a research station with little information available about what I could see there, so I was pleased to discover a lek of White-bearded Manakins, of which I'd only ever seen females before.

I had a lovely cabin with a view of nesting Red-rumped Caciques and Orange-winged Parrot, and spent a lot of time just sitting on the veranda soaking up the sights and sounds.  Bathroom visits were a bit of an adventure since it was located in a little outhouse, complete with a Giant Broad-headed Treefrog living under the rim of my toilet! 

A Black Curassow was in the big tree next to my cabin one morning and walks in the forest provided brief views of both Harpy Eagle and the ultra-shy Grey-winged Trumpeter, which I even managed to photograph through the foliage.  It took me until my final morning to finally see a stunning Golden-headed Manakin, one of my main targets, and I noticed this beautiful Thereus sp right in the lodge clearing just as I was about to leave.

My stay there was far too short and the cuisine was phenomenal so I'd love to go back and can strongly recommend staying there should you ever visit French Guiana.

Amazonian returns part 1

I had a couple of weeks off at the end January and returned to the Amazon for the first time since 2018!  I started in Belém, where a fellow guide helped me to tick off a few species I'd only glimpsed or heard before such as the localised Willis's Antbird, Black-tailed Tityra and Amazonian Grosbeak.  Our rarest sighting by far was this female Belém Woodpecker, which has a very restricted range, but it was just as nice to see some of the commoner species such as toucans, trogons and woodcreepers again.  Most of our birding was done in a park on the outskirts of the city, where this Collins' Squirrel Monkey decided the attention we were paying it warranted a rest.

Being the rainy season, there weren't many butterflies around but a visit to the botanical garden within the city did provide us with this exquisite Spangled Cupid, a metalmark that is trying its best to look like a Lycaenid.

Having spent all of my last day scouring the various city parks to no avail for Jandaya Parakeet, I was amazed to find four of them in the airport car park before flying on to my next destination.

Smientenspektakel

Back in 2022, I stumbled across what has to be one of the greatest (and least known) natural spectacles of The Netherlands, namely the pre-migration gathering of tens of thousands of Wigeon near Gouda.  I've been meaning to go back ever since but never got round to it until last week.  It was a beautiful, spring day with my first butterflies of 2026 (a Peacock and a male Brimstone) on the wing and I could already hear the calls before I got to the largest and furthest lake, where all the birds had congregated.

The sound was phenomenal, especially whenever part of the huge raft would take flight and relocate to another part of the lake.  Just as in 2022, it was impossible to estimate the numbers involved although I did try and got to around 12,000 before giving up; it was probably more like 20,000 or even more. 
A pair of Red-necked Grebes, some Black-necked Grebes coming into breeding plumage and two, male Red-crested Pochard were nice distractions but it was difficult to take my eyes off the Wigeon show.  Turn the volume up to watch the video - sorry for the snapping of the camera but a very few Dutch birders were also there to witness the spectacle.