"Friends Corner"?

 My day out birding ended up a short distance from home near a Park & Ride site. On twitter the bit of water has been called "Pool of Destiny, Puddle of Destiny and Lago del Luigi's!" For me tonight is was like "Friends Corner" as Mike and Jim were there when I arrived. Just before I left Dave, Tom, Jane and Rob turned up. We had all come to see the curlew sandpiper, tick 162 for the year.

I started the day at Filey. I parked in the Country Park and as I was sorting out my equipment etc, Mark James Pearson was packing his away. I asked him if he had seen many birds from the Brigg. It was fairly quiet he told me , perhaps the most unusual bird being an avocet. I thanked him for his help and set off for a couple of hours seawatch. Oystercatchers were on the rocks below and an avocet was flying about, I was then joined by a birder from London who was on his way home from the Lake District via lots of East Coast birding spots. He left after an hour to go further south. A small group of common scoter flew north but no new birds so I went to Filey Dams.

The car park at the Dams was full so I drove around the corner and went to East Lea. Here I joined a couple from Switzerland who were trying to identify the waders.  I allowed them to look through my telescope and they were able to see a wood sandpiper, ruff, dunlin and ringed plover. I left them in the hide and returned to the Dams, where I was able to park. I went to the central hide and sat and ate my lunch. Dunlin and ruff came close to the hide. After lunch I retuned to the Country Park and was torn between sitting in the car and listening to the test match or doing another spell of sea watching. When I spoke to Mark in the morning, he thought that the wind might pick up in the afternoon.

I went back along Carr Naze and looked for birds. Fulmars, kittiwakes and gannets were flying about but not many birds on the Brigg due to the number of people walking along. A few oystercatchers were on the rocks that were being exposed as the tide went out and I saw 2 knot, my first of the year. One still had a touch of red left from its summer plumage. A female wheatear landed next to me for about a minute before flying off.

I then returned to my car and listened to the cricket as I drove home and to see the curlew sandpiper.

A very pleasant day.