Black-winged Stilts at Little Marlow

I was rather fortunate to see these birds as I had forgotten to take my mobile phone of of mute that morning, so I did not get the 10am message from Alan Stevens (and others) to say that he had found two Black-winged Stilts at Little Marlow. Anyway, I sat down for a coffee at home, looked at my phone and saw a list of messages about the Stilts!  So no time to lose. I gathered together my birding gear and fifteen minutes or so later I was watching the birds fed around the sand spit.  I was certainly relieved!

These are rare birds in the county with only two prior records (at Willen Lake in June 1988 and Manor Farm in April 2016).  Although I did see the long staying pair at Willen Lake, it was rather a long time ago and I clearly would like to see this species on my local patch.  

I stayed on site for a couple of hours and obtained a few photos.  Digiscoping was difficult as the birds were moving around so much and focusing was tricky.  In the end there was not much to choose between my digiscoped shots and the ones taken with my Panasonic G6.
Click on photos to enlarge.

Quite a few birders turned up while I was there, with birders coming from adjacent counties.  I understand that some of the Berkshire birders where hoping that they might fly off south and over the river into Berkshire, allowing a county tick.  In the end they disappeared overnight, so it is anyones guess which direction they went.

There are again two Black Swans on the lake with another bird apparently flying in to join the flightless bird.  They seem to be getting on really well and are often close together and at times showing courtship behaviour. Maybe the number will increase even more by the end of the breeding season!