Smiles better!

I somehow found myself at Frampton Marsh this afternoon. In an unusual turn of events Mike Richardson was also there. Probably because we went together. We had a wander toward east hide and had a flyover Whimbrel. Avocets were everywhere. A slice of the med was present in a showy singing Corn Bunting beside the path. After a wrong turn to dudesville we got amazing views of a cold miserable ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE. It was drizzling and cloudy. We were cold. The bird looked rubbish. Then somebody calls a Montagu's Harrier over the flood bank and we get a decent view of a initially distant ringtail floating closer until it disappeared below the bank. A quality yeartick and fluke. And then without noticing its warm and sunny and the pratincole is flying like a giant butterfly across the marsh. No trailing edge, scarlet underwings and projecting toes beyond the tail with dark upperwings. The bird then moved toward the far end of the marsh so we moved along the path. It flew to the near edge of the marsh so we joked about checking the nostril shape before it flew straight at us and landed about 8 metres away. THE MOST AMAZING VIEWS. I smiled a lot as we returned to Yorkshire.