Raining Redwings

I headed to the coast today to try my hand at some seawatching.  As soon as I exited Ostend station, however, I noticed small groups of Redwing passing over and, by the time I reached the dunes, I was standing directly in the path of several low-flying flocks with hundreds of them passing all around me.  Within ten minutes, I counted at least 400 Redwings, together with a few Fieldfares and one Mistle Thrush.  Something big was obviously happening and another observer further along the coast counted 2100 in one hour.  Over the sea, things were much quieter, although I did get great looks at some passing Brent Geese, and a winter-plumaged Red-necked Grebe briefly stopped on the sea right in front of me.  Other than that, though, I just had one unidentified diver and a couple of Kittiwakes plus a slow but constant stream of Common Gulls passing by.  The day definitely belonged to the Redwings, therefore, so here again is that lovely picture I took a few years ago and have posted previously.

Back just in time!

It's not just the smell of autumn which is in the air but plenty of migrants too!  Friday morning, I noticed lots of passerines going over my balcony so I sat down and counted them for one hour, totalling almost 200, plus five Cormorant.  The vast majority of the songbirds seemed to be Chaffinches and a few Meadow Pipits but I had a huge surprise when three Parrot Crossbills came past.  There is a major influx of these happening at the moment with unprecented numbers turning up all over The Netherlands and the first few appearing in Belgium.  I thus did another mini migration count on Saturday morning, this time counting 320 migrants in one hour, of which 230 were Chaffinches, with smaller numbers of Brambling, Redpoll, White Wagtail, Skylark, Blackbird, Redwing and Rook.  With all this passing through the centre of Brussels, it felt inevitable that something fantastic would turn up and, sure enough, whilst I was hiking in Germany on Sunday, Belgium's first Long-tailed Shrike fell into the ringers nets at the Zwin.  It was released in front of a lucky few and I was cursing myself for not staying in Belgium but it thankfully stayed overnight, allowing me to to go see it yesterday.  It kept returning to its favourite hunting perch and so the relatively modest crowd, for a national first at least, of around 50 people all got great, prolonged views and, I'm pleased to say, kept their distance.  Getting any kind of photo was a challenge, therefore, but here is a heavily cropped image where you can at least make out the colouration

I never expected to be watching a lifer within a week of getting back from Brazil and what a beauty it was too.  Bring on the autumn!

Cristalino chronicles part 6

I'm back in Brussels again after a horrible 48-hour journey, starting with a nightmare flight from Alta Floresta which ended up being diverted to Goiânia due to a storm preventing us from landing at Cuiaba.  The plane was bouncing around all over the place with people screaming and being sick until the pilot eventually decided to give up on approaching Cuiaba airport after two terrifying attempts.  I must say Azul airlines were exceptional and, instead of flying me all the way back to Cuiaba for the following day's flight to Brasilia, put me on a short flight to Brasilia the same evening so I could have a restful night there before my international connection.
Stephen's law finally kicked on my final afternoon at the lodge, when we got fantastic looks at White-whiskered Spider-Monkey from Tower 1 with me then finding a roosting Short-billed Leaftosser close to the lodge on the way back.  Leaftossers have become extremely rare at Cristalino and this was my first, of any species, since 2014.  On my very last morning at the hotel in Alta Floresta, I finally got a glimpse of my first Cinereous Tinamou.  I had heard this species every year I'd been but never managed to see one and, although this was a typical view of just a body, the head being obscured by vegetation, the size and colouration ruled out any other possibility, plus it started singing shortly after.  That was thus my fifth lifer of the season, taking my total birdlist for the seven weeks to 370 species.  Back in Brussels, the leaves are falling and the smell of autumn is in the air.

Cristalino chronicles part 5

Boom!  The rains have finally started with an impressive storm which brought two hours of torrential rain, strong winds, thunder and lightning.  Almost immediately, bird activity seems to have picked up and, today, I had another great morning on one of the observation towers.  This is also the time scarce austral migrants turn up and I finally got my third lifer of the season with a Rufous-tailed Attila along the river.  It's funny how some groups seem to be luckier than others.  My latest group got to see spider and howler monkeys plus Giant Otters and two Agami Herons, all on their first morning.  One guy really wanted to see the trumpeters so I suggested going for a short walk late one morning and, within ten minutes, three of them crossed the trail right in front of us!  If only it was always that easy.  Finally, last year's Paint-billed Crake, only the third for the Alta Floresta region, has made a repeat appearance and is running around out in the open, much to the delight of my last two groups.

Cristalino chronicles part 4

The temperature here has finally dropped a little but we are now shrouded in smoke from farmers burning off their fields.  Strangely enough, though, I had one of my best mornings ever on the tower, with a mixed flock which stayed close to the tower and 45 species seen during the three hours we were up there.  Sungrebes are now all along the river, there having been none at all until 16 September, and 100-strong flocks of Greater Ani are passing through.  My last group saw howler, spider and saki monkey at the lodge all on the same day, and also got to see an immature Harpy Eagle, with a group of Dark-winged Trumpeters as their leaving present on the way out.  Finally, we added a new species to the lodge list when an immature male House Sparrow turned up in the staff clearing!  Although common in Alta Floresta, it must have flown over around 10km of contiguous forest to get here, but disappeared again after just two days.

Cristalino chronicles part 3

I've now been here exactly three weeks and have broken the 300-species barrier.  Some of the bird highlights of the past few days have included Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl, a heard-only Southern Nightingale Wren, Agami Heron, Common Potoo on its daytime roost, and today's big surprise of two Magpie Tanagers, which should only be in the more open areas around Alta Floresta.  Perhaps the horrible heatwave we are currently experiencing, with daytime temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius, has something to do with them showing up here.  In any case, tapir sightings have increased even further as they are forced to the river to cool off; we had 15 on this morning's boatride, including a mother and her stripey calf, with another mother and calf this afternoon.  Most exciting of all, though, was a Green Anaconda we discovered this morning resting on a rock to digest whatever it had recently eaten.

Cristalino chronicles part 2

Well, there's not been anything quite as exciting as an Ornate Hawk-Eagle trying to catch a Green Ibis since I last wrote but every day is different here in the Amazon.  One of my guests got to see 11 tapirs in one day, which is ridiculous even for this time of year.  My latest group 'only' got to see nine of them during their four-night stay but also saw the elusive tayra as well as a southern tamandua.  After two weeks here, I had seen or heard around 280 species of birds and I now have a few days off to find some more before my next group arrives.