Long-toed Stint: WOW, the last time an accepted record of this bird in the UK (excluding Ireland) was way back in 1982. Since then this the long-toed stint has gained a mythical status, a bird like that of the little whimbrel that people ope, pray and dream of adding to their lists.
The bird was found yesterday and after some confusion to its species, going from Temminck's to least then to long-toed today's twitch was always going to be mad one. Hundreds of folk filled the car parks, spilling over onto the roads outside the reserve then crammed together to see the bird.
The RSPB volunteers did their best to police the bulging crowds and I hope everyone got a decent view. I felt particularly lucky myself having got off Shetland on Wednesday, I was hoping to have stayed longer and If I did I would be stomping around up there instead of ticking this extremely rare bird. It's the luck of the draw, this time I was lucky, next time who knows?
