At home with the Brits. Part 1.

Ahhh, it feels good to be back home! Friends, Family, Fish and chips... Good old Blighty delivers it all! It also delivers the birdies if your lucky.... Or if you know where to look. Now, Dorset might not be in the same league as say... Norfolk, Cornwall or Devon but It still has some pretty brilliant places to find birds.

From windy Marshes to beautiful Pine forests to rare Heathland and offshore Islands. It is pretty easy to rake up some good self found birds with a bit of patience and a bit of help from those ever helpful internet and mobile based services, such as Birdguides elsewhere...

With this in mind. I have eagerly been checking for some birds to turn up close by over the past week on the web... I fancied a good twitch to be honest, seeing as I do not tend to go on them much ( sounds rather.. odd? ). So, I was delighted when news broke of a Stilt Sandpiper ( No less a summer plumaged adult! ) which had been found at one of my old local haunts in Weymouth - Lodmoor.

With around Twenty to Thirty records in Britain, Stilt Sandpiper would be a lifer for me! A lovely bird I just had to go for in the limited time I had ( have ) over here. So off we went. Me and my Aunt! Scope in tow. Off on what never fails to feel like an adventure ( Almost like finding treasure ) to me!

...Finding this bird would not be easy. Two hours we had been searching the mudflats of Lodmoor. To no avail. Still, I was not too worried as I was sure we would get onto it after a while.What with all the birders scattered over the reserve, surely It was only a matter of time until it was re found somewhere. An hour later a fellows pager went off alerting us that the bird had been seen over by the "Garage". Garage? What Garage looks over the marsh?

Continued in Part 2.