Twitching

So why were there so many birdwatchers all standing on an exposed sea bank at the edge of the Wash? You'll have to look at the extra to find out, though this can only be considered a record shot. It was a big bird, but was very far away!

Chris and I had dithered about whether to go, but in the end decided that it was an opportunity we couldn't miss. It was certainly culturally interesting - there is a great camaraderie among the regular twitchers, some of whom had travelled from as far afield as Manchester and Worcester.

It was a pleasure to see this magnificent bird, which we  watched for about an hour. During that time it emerged from the old packing case where it had been hunkered down, looked around and preened itself quite throroughly, but never worked up the energy to fly or come any closer. After this bit of indulgence, Chris and I had an interesting drive across the fens to Timberland, where we did some useful plant recording before heading home!