Willow Tit & Dowitcher at Rutland

Just Jimmy & myself set off for Kelham Bridge  today & after having a bit of trouble finding the place we phone Robert for a bit of help & he guides us to the reserve, it turns out we were not to far away so it's not long before we are on site & after about 10 minuets we see a single Willow Tit arrive on the feeder, so a good year tick in the bag.
Next on the agenda is Rutland in the hope of seeing the Long-billed Dowitcher, we pay the entrance & car park fee it was £10 for the two of us so not to bad.
It's a bit of a walk down to the Shoveler Hide & on arrival we find it packed out & to make matters worse everybody had to crowd down one end of the hide & it was not to comfortable in there but we do see the bird over on the far bank walking about with a couple of Snipe,after to short a time we had to move out to let more people move forward to get a view of the bird, so we leave the crowd behind & take the fairly long drive to Welney Nature reserve in the hope of meeting up with the Stork that's been around since Saturday.
It was posted at 8.30 this morning but had taken flight & had been seen over Burnham Market later in the day.
After hanging about for over three hours we give up any hope of it coming back to roost for the night & head for home, only two year ticks but a very nice day out & meeting some nice people on the way.                                                


                                                       

On the feeders at Kelham today

Just a couple of many Long-tailed Tits