Uphill struggle

The title of this post could easily relate to my recent progress trying to add species to my Belgian year list but, in fact, sums up the antics of the Nutcrackers I saw during my annual, autumnal hike in the Ardennes last week.  As soon as I got to the Nutcracker capital of Logbiermé, one bird flew past me on its way downhill, only to return around five minutes later with a crop full of acorns.  This repeated itself several times over the next hour or so, with the uphill, return flights to their territories within the spruce forest looking very laboured since the birds were so heavy with acorns, they kept having to stop in a tree to rest every 100m or so!  Yesterday, it was me who struggled to locate this half-hidden, adult Night Heron, despite it sitting in exactly the same place as the immature I saw last summer.

It is surely the same individual, therefore, now in full breeding plumage, including a ridiculously long head-plume. 
This Comma butterfly, on the other hand, was much less shy, and seemed desperate to demonstrate how it got its name.

BE #216 (Nutcracker, Night Heron)

BRU #112

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.

Night, night

I visited a nature reserve south of Leuven over the weekend and was surprised to find this sleepy, second-year Night Heron sitting out in the open.  The bird has been present at the reserve since 24 May but hadn't been reported for over two weeks so I wasn't expecting to see it, especially in the middle of the day, which is way past its bedtime.  This was only my third in Belgium and the first since 2013 as it is a very rare breeding species here.  Yesterday, I made another attempt at finding Cranberry Fritillary at a different reserve in Belgian Luxembourg.  The weather was not great for butterflies, however, although I did eventually see Marbled Fritillary, lots of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries plus another, which may well have been Cranberry but just didn't stop long enough for me to tell.  There were Red-backed Shrikes everywhere and it was nice to see lots of Siskins, which I only usually get to see during winter.  Originally, I was going to walk there and back from Libramont train station (roughly 6km one-way) but, once there, I decided to continue on to the next train station instead and ended up hiking 20km!  The only new butterfly for the year was this lovely Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia).

An eagle bogey

I have finally added White-tailed Sea-Eagle to my Belgian list (now at 303 species) thanks to a long-staying immature in the Dijle valley.  It has been there since 25 October but this was my second attempt to try and see it.  The first time, it flew off in a southerly direction before I arrived and everyone assumed it had moved on, only for it to return just ten minutes after I had left!  This time, though, it was sitting, amazingly well camouflaged, at the edge of the reeds when I arrived and we were soon treated to it circling over the lake, scattering the assembled gulls, Cormorants, and waterfowl, including two Pintail drakes.  A group of six Cormorants then entertained us by doing some formation fishing, and there were two Little Egrets plus three Great White Egrets present, one of the latter showing just how big they are by standing next to a Grey Heron.

 

A couple of Grey Herons migrating over Brussels last week were new for my balcony list, as was a single Fieldfare in a flock of Starlings.

Summer blues

As this is my first European summer in three years, I'd more or less forgotten just how quiet things get at this time of year.  Once the temperature climbs above the mid-20's, seeing even the common species becomes an effort, let alone discovering any rarities.  Still, I had a blue afternoon at a nature reserve south of Leuven earlier this week, starting with this female Holly Blue.  This is another butterfly which is difficult to photograph as it spends much of its time up in trees and was the first one I'd seen well enough to identify since last year.  The 'green team' tried their best to equalise the score by fielding two very close Green Sandpipers plus a Greenshank, with at least four Common Sandpipers and a juvenile Little Ringed Plover completing the wader contingent.  The blues had one last ace up their sleeve, however, as I entered the final hide to find this splendid, male Kingfisher sitting in full view just outside.  Oh, and the flower that was attracting all the butterflies in my last post turned out to be wild marjoram, also known as oregano.  Many thanks to Gilbert for the identification.