This year twitching has taken a back seat for me, although it has really grained on me the fact that I haven't been for the Scops Owl, Semipalmated Sandpiper or the Lesser Grey Shrike... all much needed lifers! But shock horror, to see on the 11th July @ aprox 17:30hrs news of a Stilt Sandpiper at Conwy RSPB my mouth began to water!!

No way was I missing out on this one. Unable to go that evening due to being at work, I began making plans for the following day.

With my wife working it meant I had my daughter with me, but being as I should've also been working that afternoon, my Mum was coming to have Erin anyway.... so, no problem there. This gave me time to check to see if the bird was still there... it was!! So, I got my Mum to come slightly earlier than usual and phoned work to say I wouldn't be in on time.

I set off at 11:00am, and had a wholly uneventful journey, although the A55 was congested to hell in places, and I arrived at Conwy RSPB at 12:30pm.

It was almost too easy... I walked into the visitor centre set my scope up pretty much centrally and looked through it, the first bird in my scope.... STILT SANDPIPER!!!

How easy was that? I remained for half an hour or so, letting a few new arrivals peer through my scope at this great little wader, before deciding to head for home.

The journey back was much quicker, so I headed for VP, where I picked up a patch year tick in the shape of a Kingfisher!! Taking my patch year list to 118 species!!

The Stilt Sandpiper was my 14th lifer this year and my 208th bird for the year. I didn't bother going to work at all, instead I headed for the local and celebrated a good days birding with several pints of Guinness!! Excellent stuff!!