The bird was only seen on saturday 8 march at Kieldrecht, 51°17'30.18"N; 4°12'13.22"E.
A short résumé of some discussions among Belgian birdwatchers about this bird: the chance that this bird is ship-assisted is big as it was found near one of the biggest ports of Europe (as was the catbird of december 2006, 51° 15' 52"N, +4° 16' 44"E). The vagrancy potential of this bird is very small though. Boat-tailed grackle doesn't realy migrate or only migrates over very short distances. D-category (including ship-assisted individuals) does not longer exist in Belgium, so including a species in A-category maybe should involve the vagrancy potential of a bird.
There is a possibility that the bird is still in the area, but today and yesterday where 2 stormy and very rainy days...

this bird has just been seen again!

What a great luck it is back.

But probabely most of the american birds seen in Europe are ship-assisted. We will never find out, and wht´s the difference anyway??? Enjoy the bird.

I would like to see the boat´s Søren Brink is talking about, it would be a great sight. A boat whit American wigeon´s, Green-winged teal´s, Ring-necked duck´s, Surf scoter´s, some Frankling´s gull´s and if you are lucky you may find a reel rare bird!

Rasmus Strack

Hi, I understand the Grackle was seen again on Sunday 20th April. Can anyone (Pieter?) tell us whether it is being seen regularly in between 8th March, 27th March and 20th April and if so the precise directions to favoured area.

Really keen to pop over and see it so any help posted here would be very gratefully received.

Thanks
Justin