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.