Like lightning

It has gotten cold this week so, yesterday afternoon, I hung a bag of peanuts out on my balcony for the first time since March.  I've written before about how quick my local birds react to me resuming my winter feeding but, yesterday, they smashed all records as I had both Great Tit and Blue Tit feeding within ten minutes!  How is that possible?  It's almost as if they've been sitting there waiting for me to get my act together since autumn began.  My local park has been devoid of Chiffchaffs for a few weeks now although I did find one in some waterside willows elsewhere in Brussels last weekend.  More unexpected, though, was a group of around 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  We usually have one or two overwintering along the canal somewhere but mid-November is very late for such a large group this far inland.  Other lingerers making the most of the sun were some Sympetrum dragonflies and a couple of Clouded Yellow butterflies, which are scarce in Brussels in general but almost unheard of in November.