Bit of a long day today, starting rather badly when I set off for yesterday’s Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Cleveland, only to receive the dreaded ‘no sign’ message at 7.30 (though many thanks to whoever put this out early – it helped me at least!). By this time I’d reached Newark – about 140 miles from home – so was basically in the middle of nowhere. After spinning out a McDonalds breakfast for far longer than it deserved, in the hope that the Sharpie might be relocated, I headed over to Collingham pits near the River Trent. For a landlocked county, 2 Pectoral Sandpiper, 4 Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint in Notts is probably an excellent haul… but it wasn’t really much consolation!
In the absence of any positive news from up north, I bailed out and headed back home, with a slight diversion to look for a Wryneck near Southend. Good choice! After a bit of stealthy creeping about, I ended up lying on a concrete path with an unconcerned Wryneck feeding no more than 6 feet in front of me… brilliant! 
I’ve not had time to work on many of the images yet, so there will definitely be more of these to come!
As if that wasn’t good enough, I’d had a couple of calls about an adult Sabine’s Gull on the KGV Reservoir, where I’m fortunately a keyholder. Would’ve been rude not to go for a look, I thought. It was a long 45 minute walk right up to the far NW corner of the north basin to see the bird, but once again, it was wonderfully obliging.
Again, more pics to come in the next day or two… but right now, I’m exhausted!
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