I've not been out of Belgium since my last post but a couple of species I've seen over the past week would make you think I was in Bulgaria instead!
Just three days after finding my Hume's Warbler in Zeebrugge, I was back there again for this Paddyfield Warbler. First found within the port, where there is very little cover, it was ever so obliging, even perching on birders' cars. By the time I got there the following day, it had moved into the dunes and taken to the thick cover of the marram grass so that I was happy to get a couple of good looks at it during the hour or so I was there. The bushes were literally dripping with Goldcrests and I also saw my first Fieldfare of the autumn, in addition to my lifer Paddyfield, which became my 450th species in Europe! Then, against all expectation, our Pygmy Cormorant was again seen at the place it spent last winter and was last observed on 10 June. It is now sporting a beautiful, speckled plumage, very different to the juvenile plumage of last winter. It looks like it has settled in for its second winter in Brussels, and the Paddyfield Warbler is still skulking around the dunes of Zeebrugge, so there's a little taste of Bulgaria (minus the Red-breasted Geese of course) in Belgium at the moment.
