Black-winged Stilts; awesome but a long, long walk

Lymington Keyhaven Marshes ~ 9th June 2012 ~

Firstly I must apologise for having not posted for over 4 months... I've been very busy with school & birding!

Now then, on to my most recent 'twitch' to the Keyhaven/Lymington/Pennington Marshes to see the two Black-winged Stilts that turned up.

Having not done any birding for nearly a week, half term was becoming rather boring. So, on Friday 8th I managed to persuade my dad to take me to see the Stilts provided I did all my homework while he was at work. I did and so he said yes.

Getting up early is definitely NOT my strongpoint so at 9.20am ish we set off. We arrived an hour or so later and immediately set off along the sea wall being blown all over the place by the gale force winds. We walked for what seemed like hours but was, in fact, only 40mins or so. This is the rough walk we did:

Here I have explained what the different coloured lines mean. Black = going to where we thought the Stilts were. Red = walking back from where thought the Stilts were. Blue = the walk we took once we were told by fellow birders were the Stilts were. Green X = where we viewed the Stilts from. NB there is an unmarked pool which is where they were. And finally, Yellow = our walk back to the car after seeing and photographing both the Stilts.

Here are a few of the photos I got of the Stilts:

As you may be able to see, the left hand bird has a totally white head, making it an adult bird. On the other hand, the bird on the right has black on it's head, making it a 1st-winter bird.

This is the adult bird in flight

Once back at the car we debated whether or not to go and attempt to see the Glossy Ibis at Farlington marshes but we decided against it as we knew it would be another long walk. So, we headed home.

As always, thanks for reading :)