An early start for a foray across the channel to some woods south if Brussels to look for a mammal that we had thought about looking for for a couple of years, Siberian Chipmunk. Setting up the sat nav we headed north and then east from Calais via Ghent which brought us into a traffic snarl up as we approached Brussels. We decided to take the next turning off and try and navigate our way through the side lanes. We managed to reach the first car park in the Foret de Soignes by,about 10.30 having seen quite a bit of interesting country side and some pretty villages. The Foret was surprisingly quiet with Red-eared Terrapin, Grey Wagtail, Tufted Duck, Kingfisher, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Mallard, Mandarin ducks and Egyptian Geese on the lake and Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches, Robins and Nuthatches in the Beech trees and over the car park 4 Buzzards. We saw lots of Downy Emerald and Red-eyed Damsels, with one person seeing Banded Demoiselle as well as some Large Red Damselflies and a few Emperors patrolling the Pond. Odd flowers of interest were Small Balsam, a Rampion and Lily of the Valley. The Beech trees were monumental and cathedral like, but we saw no,sign of the chipmunk so we moved to a second site where the Foret was very similar and though we heard a few rustles in the undergrowth there was no sign of the chipmunk. A third site looked very promising, with scarce chaser in a pond but a chat with a couple of friendly locals told us that the chipmunks hadn't been seen for a while. One last site was the Rouge Cloistre, an area of woodland, fish ponds for the monks in the abbey, which were used to control the water for the mill, and some gardens and allotments. It looked very unlikely but asking a man sitting on the bench we were told that he had seen them a couple of days ago along the edge of the lake towards the end. We walked along the path to the second lake and suddenly, there was one foraging along the edge of the path. A second one scuttled near the path before disappearing up the bank.
A further 3 were seen in this bit of the forest and then more were foraging among a pile of brushwood beside the path. As we walked back to the car we saw 2 or 3 more making a total of at least 12 individuals.
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