New additions

As you've probably gathered from the lack of posts lately, I've had little time for birding since my Blyth's Reed Warbler twitch to The Netherlands.  The highlights, once again, were seen or heard from my apartment so that my apartment list now stands at an impressive 75 species since I moved here in the autumn of 2015.  The first new addition was a pair of White Storks I noticed passing high over the park last week and, two days ago, I struggled to hear a singing Willow Warbler above the noise of the numerous and extremely vocal Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs.  The Willow Warbler is still there today, simultaneously singing and foraging for insects amongst the blossoms.  Another good bird for my balcony, although not a new one, was a handsome male Black Redstart, my first of the year, perched briefly on the railing.  During one of my few walks in the forest before the birch trees started trying to make up for lost time and pumping out as much pollen as they can, I saw a Kingfisher entering its nesthole and found this beautiful Snake's Head Fritillary, which I don't think I've seen before.

Mexican whistle

Having given myself all day to find the Blyth's Reed Warbler, I then had time to explore the neighbouring nature reserve, the Reeuwijksche Plassen.  Although I had heard of it before, I didn't have a clue what could be seen there, but soon found a pair of Ferruginous Duck.  This is a good bird for The Netherlands and were probably overwintering individuals from Germany.  I didn't locate any spring migrants but the final lagoon was chock-a-block with Wigeon, which I presume were gathering before heading off on their migration.  They were certainly very excited, with the sound of their whistles filling the air and, every now and then, a ripple of whistling would work its way through the flock just like a Mexican wave.  I made several attempts to count them but it was simply impossible as they were everywhere I looked.  In the end, I settled for a conservative estimate of 20,000 to 30,000!

BRW!

My biggest bogey bird has finally fallen!  Earlier this week, I heard about a Blyth's Reed Warbler in Gouda (NL) which seems to have overwintered since it was discovered on 1st February.  It is also right next to a train station so I just had to give it a try yesterday.  I arrived to what seemed to be the right spot to find I was the only one there, which is not surprising considering the bird has been around for five weeks, so I started scrutinising the many bramble bushes.  There was plenty of movement in the undergrowth, but it always turned out to be Robins, Dunnocks, or Wrens and I was beginning to wonder whether I was in the right place, until three young birders arrived and spread out to cover more of the area.  After 1h40 of searching, I finally spotted it working its way through the vegetation and called the others over.  It showed really well for around 15 minutes before flying away over a ditch, and one of the boys even managed to get this picture, despite it being constantly on the move.  Even though there is a leaf in the way, the long-billed, flat-headed profile is obvious, as is the cold brown colouration of the upperparts.  2020 was supposed to be my year for seeing Blyth's Reed Warbler since I had a trip to Latvia planned, until Covid came along of course, and to add insult to injury, I couldn't find the one singing in Amsterdam either.  Since then, I've had little opportunity to try, despite them now breeding on Texel.  The dubious honour of the commonest European species I've not yet managed to see now belongs to European Storm Petrel.

Spring already?

February has been predominantly wet and very windy so most of my birding has been from my apartment, where a pair of Nuthatches have been regularly visiting my balcony.  A few of the local Monk Parakeets spent a couple of days refurbishing last year's Magpie nest before deciding that wasn't the kind of real estate they were looking for.  I did try a twitch in the rain to the male Falcated Duck, which has been bouncing around a couple of sites on the border between Flemish Brabant and Limburg, but it failed to show.  This past week, though, the sun came out and it suddenly felt like spring, especially when a Brimstone, my first butterfly of the year, appeared during a walk around my Brussels patch.  Pretty much everything that sings was in song, including a very vocal Middle Spotted Woodpecker simultaneously calling to his mate and excavating a nesthole, with a pair of Great Crested Grebes also displaying.  The heronry, which started as just a single nest a few years ago, now contains six occupied nests!

Home and away

I've seen some good birds from home lately, including this immature Sparrowhawk and a bright, male Brambling, my only one of the year so far, accompanying a group of Greenfinches.  Since my last post, I tried revisiting the Ross's Gull in Nieuwpoort but the silly thing was absent for most of the day and didn't show up til mid-afternoon, long after I'd given up and moved on to the polders instead.  I still had a good, winter day's birding, though, with plenty of waders around, including around 200 Dunlin and at least 400 Golden Plovers, plus a hunting Hen Harrier, some Pink-footed Geese and a big group of around 80 Gannets fishing offshore.  Yesterday, I did my annual winter tour around Zeeland which I had to skip last year due to Covid-related travel restrictions.  It was the first time I'd been to The Netherlands since August 2020!  We must have seen several thousand Golden Plovers, with good numbers of Barnacle Geese, a few Brent Geese, at least five Spotted Redshank, Purple Sandpiper, a male and 2 female Smew, Eider and Red-breasted Merganser.  I've only had one other, short birding walk in the Sonian Forest which was fairly quiet but did reveal two pairs of Bullfinch, yet my year-list has made good progress nonetheless and now stands on 109 species (96 in Belgium).

Red-breasted Merganser by Theo Hortensius

Let's twitch again

After all the chasing after new species for last year's Belgian big year, I decided that, this year, I would only twitch lifers or new birds for my Belgian list.  I didn't expect to be at it again quite so soon but today twitched this female Ring-billed Gull in the province of Antwerp.  Interestingly, she was first discovered to be in Belgium on 27 December without anyone actually seeing her, based on the GPS signal from the transmitter on her back.  It didn't take long for people to find her, though, and she's been entertaining the crowds ever since since.  Today, she was in her favourite field for catching worms, together with a couple of Common Gulls.  She was fitted with the transmitter in Poland and is at least 19 years old!

The end of an era!

Our female Ferruginous Duck is no more!  First found on my Brussels patch on 13 December 2012, during a severe cold spell which resulted in virtually all other open water in the area freezing over, my past two visits have failed to find her and she was last seen on 11 November.  A presumed adult in 2012, that would mean she reached the grand old age of 10 (back in 1987, the oldest-known, wild individual was only 8 years old).  The next two pictures show how she has matured over the years, the first being taken in December 2012, the second in January 2018.

As you can see, she became much more male-like with maturity, resulting in several mistaken reports of male birds.  She is also the individual wild bird I have gotten to know the best in all my time birdwatching.  Until autumn 2019, she would disappear to parts unknown for the summer but, presumably since going through duck menopause (I'm not making that up!), has not bothered to migrate and remained here all year-round, making her the one and only resident Ferruginous Duck in the whole of Belgium.  I have thus taken dozens of visitors to see her over the years and knew all of her favourite places so I rarely had a visit to my patch without finding her.  She would also allow me to get very close before calmly swimming away.  Very much a loner, she was occasionally found in the company of Tufted Ducks, attracting the attentions of bachelor males, and I even saw her being courted by a male Wood Duck once.  Goodness know what the resulting hybrids would have looked like had that succeeded!

My year-listing, despite seeing 53 species on on near my Brussels patch yesterday, doesn't quite feel the same without her.  I'll miss you, Fergie.