SHARP TAILED SANDPIPER 21-09-10

The chance of another brand new bird had me racing down to Teesside as soon as I had finished work. A very rare SHARP TAILED SANDPIPER had turned up at Greatham Creek and I really didnt want to miss it. The problem was, lately it had started to get dark a lot earlier (a sure sign that winters approaching!) and as I was driving down the A19 the sun was already starting to fade. I pulled up at the car park at about 6.45pm and it was indeed getting dark so I practically ran the whole way to where the bird was. En-route a couple of birders reassured me that the bird was still there, but it was walking further away up the creek by the minute. This put an extra bolt in my stride. Thankfully, when I arrived at the group of birders already there, one of them kindly allowed me to see the bird through his scope. I breathed a sigh of relief, then put my scope on it and enjoyed it for about 20 minutes before both the darkness then the bird going out of sight led me to call it a day. This was bird number 292 for the UK, and number 833 for the World.