A second red-neck

I woke up this morning with the vague idea of heading to the south coast for the greater yellowlegs but unfortunately work got in the way and so I spent the day on the phone instead!
By way of compensation though I headed out for an early tea time twitch to Broom gravel pits. these are a relatively new set of pits up the A1. This spring though they have been red hot on the bird front. they seem to be acting as a magnet for migratory birds following the A1 corridor. A couple of weeks ago I had a white-winged black tern, last week it was a Temmincks stint and then last night a smart male red-necked phalarope dropped in.
So, a 50 minute blast up the A1 got me on site. I dived out of the car and quickly got onto the bird which was quite distant. I then spent the next hour on the phone to work in my car thus proving men can multitask!
Business finished I returned to the pit with my camera and spent a very pleasant hour photographing a very small bird a long distance away!

 This shows the "view". Its actually taken with a 500mm lens and 1.4x converter - spot the bird.

A bit closer, or rather a massive crop, shows the smart detail on the bird.

 It is a wading bird, but one with a habit of almost swimming whilst picking insects off the surface. The red-neck is obvious in the nice breeding plumaged male.
Most of the time though it was being pestered by the local birds. One redshank especially wouldn't let it settle.

Nice late afternoon treat and partly made up for the yellowlegs. Hope it stays....