Wilbur(ina) the Whimbrel

On the evening of Thursday 29th August, a walk down to Kessingland sluice only revealed a Wheatear which suddenly popped on on the path just before the sluice. Going over to the Benacre side, there was no initial sign of the Whimbrel, I rang Jane F and she mentioned that could hide in the tall weeds along the Benacre sluice. A dog walker promptly disturbed it and it flew from the north- west corner of bencher Pit and right over my head I saw it settle on the path along the northern, Kessingland side of the river. I quickly ran round taking a circular anti- clockwise route around ensuring the sun was behind me and crawled on all fours round the side of the bushes to ensure the bird wasn't disturbed and the fine Whimbrel was busy feeding, it had an especial preference for probing the deep rabbit holes. It was usually around 30/ 40 metres away, but at one point it walked straight towards me and at its closest proximity was only 10 feet away and fed here away for several minutes before it suddenly took off and flew over to the other side again. Along the Benacre sluice I could see it feeding again, checking the Pit for potential migrants revealed little along its western side. A Little Grebe was seen on the Pit.