Knot a bad day…

Fancied somewhere completely different today so went for a bit of a drive round. First stop was at Baston gravel pits and my jaw dropped as the only wader I saw was a summer-plumaged knot!, the first one I’ve ever found inland. Well, that made my day, but it got a bit better later on.

I drove on a bit further, towards Willow tree fen nature reserve, expecting nothing in particular but with much hope. While looking through some yellow wags and linnets along the main track I looked round to see well known birder and twitcher John Weldon. His first words were “it’s down there” -“what”, sez I, “the red-footed falcon” sez John, “you bloody wot?”, sez I.  Yep, there definitely was one! I swear this was a total jam-in, I didn’t check any bird news services last evening or this morning, even though Sharon asked me if I wanted a quick look on her pad before leaving the house. What a brilliant piece of luck. Apparently it’s the same bird that was in Staffs recently. To me it seemed slightly out of sorts, sleeping a lot and generally a tad lethargic. Hope it’s OK.

A hobby was seen, with another later at nearby Baston fen. A couple of red kites seen on the journey home.

this lovely hare was at willow tree fen

===============================================

Sketch of the day.

Red kite in colour pencils. (sketched from an internet photo.)