Lodmoor RSPB - Thu 6 Sep

After work today was my first chance to travel down to Lodmoor RSPB in Weymouth to twitch Britain's second confirmed Short-billed Dowitcher (it had been a nervous day or two of waiting since the bird had been re-identified having been put out as a Long-billed Dowitcher when first found at the weekend). Leaving work I made good time until getting stuck behind a tractor, a hold-up that cost me about five minutes and proved costly as when I joined the throng of birders I was told the bird had flown in to the centre of the reserve a minute before my arrival!
Over the next hour I waited patiently, seeing a couple of Water Rails, a few Mediterranean Gulls and a Green Sandpiper. Then, all the gathered birds took to the air, so I thought the Dowitcher would join them...it didn't! Around fifty or so Black-tailed Godwits, a dozen Dunlin and a Ringed Plover all wheeled around. A handful or Yellow Wagtails flew overhead but still no sign of the bird I was after.
Then a cry went out from behind, as one intuitive birder had walked round to the road and higher ground and he shouted down to the rest of us that the bird was showing...so a mad rush followed as we all had to walk best part of a mile to get to the higher ground which was only a few metres behind us! Luckily I was one of the first to get to this viewpoint and after a quick look through another's scope got the bird in mine before it again flew out of view. Some of the birders present missed it again, and I felt for them, but could not easily hide my elation at this mega rare transatlantic vagrant. So Short-billed Dowitcher adds itself to my UK list and pushes me ever closer to the magic 400 mark!
A quick walk back to the car produced a few more flocks of Yellow Wagtails, at least seventy or so birds must have passed through whilst I was on the reserve, and a few Bearded Tits could be heard calling from the reeds. My final sighting of the day was a Slow Worm which I nearly trod on.

Thinking it already dead I gave it a little prod, which soon woke it up and eventually it slid in to the grass and off the path. A fairly late night and I missed Tristan as he was fast asleep when I got home, but a cracking bird!