St Vitus dance

The safari went out twitching in the rain this arvo. Geez it was braw for the first time this season - off with the cap and out with the woolly hat from now I think! A brief window of opportunity coincided with a rather large high tide. Off we north over the river we headed...arriving at the site I discovered I hadn't brought the map reference I wrote down before we left Base Camp...plonker. So we had to make do with a walk up and down the bank keeping a watchful eye on all waders. Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Turnstone, Redshank...nope our intended 'victim' isn't one of those. Grey Plovers are nice, don't see them too often. A Rock Pipit hopped around the tide line and a male Eider sat with two females just off shore. further out a sizable flock of Mallards roosted on the tide. The return walk saw us bag a Snipe and a couple of Curlews in the fields. Not a lot else, but embarrassingly we dipped on the Long Billed Dowitcher. Thought about heading even deeper into Birds2Blog territory but with the rain getting heavier we bottled it and legged it back home to get a roaring fire blazing in the hearth and dry Frank off. Kept him on his lead to keep him out of the sea but he got just as wet anyway. Have to hope it sticks around a few more days...need it for a Fylde tick not a lifer thankfully.

Where to next? At the rate the fire isd consuming logs a trip to the woodstore is in order.

In the meantime let us know what you've dipped out on in your outback.