Great Knot - 15.7.14

 

Great Knot

 

A few years ago I was on holiday up at my dads old caravan when just as I was sitting down to dinner the mega alert went off telling me about a Great Knot just down the road at Breydon Water. On arrival the bird was in the middle of the estuary and couldn't even be identified to any species! Roll forward a few years and news broke late in the evening of a Great Knot at Breydon Water! News the next morning was positive and so off I went arriving around 2.5 hours later. Learning from my last twitch there for the Broad-Billed Sandpiper I headed straight for the rugby club car park on the south wall. I wandered up and joined 2 other birders. While waiting for the tide to drop I noted 7 Little Egret, a nice summer plumage Mediterranean Gull and 4 Spotted Redshank which were a nice year tick. Eventually the tide dropped and the waders left their roost and flew out onto the mud. The birders on the north bank then suddenly started moving and were obviously looking at the bird. After a nervous wait I suddenly picked up the bird and GREAT KNOT was onto my list. I got the now 9 others onto it and everyone was suddenly very happy!