A consolation prize

I set off very early in  the morning with the idea of seeing a red-spotted bluethroat. This is a rare Siberian vagrant but there have been decent numbers over here this Spring. This one had been singing its little heart out near Weybourne in Norfolk for a couple of days. It was still present early evening the day before so I figured it had a reasonable chance of hanging on. I got to the car park about 7.15 and yomped along the cliff path where the bales of hay and an old pill-box were. Two birders, including local celebrity birder Penny Clarke, were already there. Well, one of them was leaving as the bird had not been since dawn! I hung around for an hour or so with Penny but it had clearly done an overnight flit. This is only about a mile away from where I dipped the greater-spotted cuckoo last week so this bit of coastline is not doing me any favours.
There wasn't a lot else of rarity value around so I mooched along the coast for a bit hoping it or something else might get found. Eventually my phone alert went off with something to get the interest levels up. Two black-winged stilts at Wells. They were at the same pools where I had seen the wood sandpipers last week so I knew the location and headed straight off, luckily getting one of the last car parking spots.
There were already 20 or so people on site and I headed off to join threm. The stilts were showing very well.

They are a true pair - the male is in the upper photo. It had a much darker back and a set of head and face markings. The female in the lower photo has an almost brown back and a clean white head.
They were mainly feeding away on the marsh but the locals, especially the avocets who had chicks, were not so keen.

 Although they kept getting moved on they never went very far. Stilts used to be very rare birds in the UK but have been moving North with the changing climate. In recent years they have bred successfully in the UK and with this being a true pair you must hope they will settle down here. They certainly are going to be trying as at one point the male mated with the female.

 Mostly though they were pulling insects off the surface of the water and feeding.

With a long journey ahead of me going back home I left them to have a post prandial snooze (them not me). Looking at posts later they hung around till about 6 then flew further long the coast to Holme where they spent the early evening. Hopefully they will find somewhere to nest but they do need to keep away form existing colonies I think!