Saturday 22nd February

While in Durham saw a number of juvenile cormorants and long-tailed tit.

Last weekend I was on a "cultural" trip to Brussels, made a chance first bird spot. A green parakeet through over the Magritte house in Jette just as we were being shown round the garden. What was not a good view (basically a silhouette against the sky) was considerably improved upon the day after when several species were spotted flying around the fringes of a park near the Foret de Seignes.  Also

What a poser!

heard but did not see them in the area of the Parc Royal.  A sign of the mild weather was a red admiral in flight at the Botanique this morning.

On the way to Foret de Seignes got a nice view of a posing cormorant (see picture).

Before this constant rain had put a halt to all nature activities for 10 days, but there was another greenfinch in the trees around the corner a day or two before I left for Brussels.

Monday 3rd February

Trip to Mersehead with a friend who wanted to see barnacle geese and also enjoyed yellowhammers, greenfinch and for me the best sighting ever of a goldcrest which persistently dotted around in the hedgerow while we looked on five yards away.

Partly thanks to others also saw pintails, teal (first time for me), wigeon, shellduck and shoveler as well as numerous curlew.  She also thought she saw snipe but I could not confirm.  Did not see tree sparrows or reed buntings on this occasion.