Ralph Jones picked me up at 6am today, and once we'd stowed Duncan Rothwell and Bazzo in the Land Rover, we all headed north to Carlisle and then east past Hadrian's Wall, Hadrian's Lamppost and Hadrian's Roundabout into Northumberland as the November sun raked across a fine Borders' dawn.
Things were looking good as we cleared Newcastle and the pager bleeped out that the Greater Yellowlegs was still at East Chevington lagoons at 8.30am.
Target acquired. Hurrah!!!
Unfortunately, 15 minutes before we arrived there, the bird flew north and out of sight.
We weren't overly afeared though - this Yankee tends to leave Chevington and fly up to Hauxley Nature Reserve each morning so that's where we drove on up to.
And got to the hide and sat.
And sat.
And sat.
Two hours later, no sign of the 'Legs and fears of a big dip were beginning to creep into our minds.
Nice Kingfisher fishing at Hauxley though, with Goldeneye, Mipits and a lone Eurasian White Front on the approach road.
These were no substitute for the leggy mega though, and to calm our nerves we decided to regroup in the village of Amble, eat an aorta-busting full breakfast and review the situation.
Once we'd done that, we retraced our steps to East Chevington in case the bird had sneaked back to the North Pool.
Nope, no sign.
Big black dip clouds and a very quiet drive home were looming large in the mind now.
By 1pm, the temperature was dropping, so we decided to try Druridge Bay Country Park - we'd been told there was no suitable wader feeding habitat there, but it was the only big bit of water between East Chevington and Hauxley, so it was worth a punt.
Scanned the water there from the watersports car park with the 'scope, panned east, and God's Holy Trousers! - there was the Greater Yellowlegs, bobbing up and down on foolishly long chromium yellow pins on a half submerged log by the visitor centre, about 800m from us!!!
Paint me purple and call me Vimto!
We jumped back into the car and drove closer to the area, and after a bit of creepy creepy, found the bird feeding on fish fry in the shallows - managing to catch no fewer than four fishies in 20 minutes.
For a few glorious seconds it jumped back up on the submerged log and bobbed and jerked like all tringas do, annoyed at us and the local BHGs, which it seemed to view as feeding competitors.
We backed off and put the bird out on the pager, but not before I managed a few modest digiscoped shots....
The cavalry arrived after about 20 minutes, and by 2pm there were at least 30 birders crowding onto the bank, so we left them with the bird and headed for home.
Mission accomplished, thanks for a great day fellas!
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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SORRY ABOUT THAT FOLKS, BLOG SOFTWARE CRASHED. BOFFINS HAVE NOW FIXED IT - IF ANYONE HAS ANY NEWS?
Hi John, 18th Nov-Crossens Inner:10 Eurasian Whitefront and 6 Barnacle Geese.Old sea wall 1 very late Common Darter, 1 Red Ad. 1 Small Tort. Also 2 late Water Ladybird. Mike.