After all the excitement yesterday, I knew I should have put the optics in the car. On my way to a meeting, a call came through from Gary at Low Newton about a Stilt Sandpiper at Cresswell pond.
I am quite cool with these having seen the one Gary found at Newton scrapes in 2012 and a juvenile in Cumbria a short time earlier than that, but it is a good bird and isn't really one to ignore, especially when it is so close. So, meeting completed, I took a short detour via Cresswell back to the office.
A good turn out was already watching the bird as it roosted over on the main spit. I couldnt say good views were had, because the shadows and heat haze made for a dark bird that looked like a rock. As the sun went in, more flank barring could be seen and some dark feathers in the scapulars and mantle and it even raised its head a couple of times showing the long, slightly decurved at the tip, dark bill.
It didn't look like it was going to do much, so it was back to work for me...
Two great birds in two days locally. What next I wonder....
