".... (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)"

It was pouring with rain when I left home but I wasn't deterred as I planned to visit a hide.

Luckily for me there were two very experienced birders in the hide. I've only recently started togging birds. They had been watching a Jack Snipe and had even seen it swimming. They indicated where I should look but at first I could see nothing.

Suddenly I saw this tiny bird, not much bigger than a robin, bobbing comically and endearingly into view. I have never seen one before and had to crop my pics quite hard. It didn't help that I had forgotten to alter my white balance after shooting under artificial light yesterday.

I remember when I was in the infants tracing the shape of avocet, snipe and curlew beaks in the air from our noses. I'm glad I've seen a snipe at last. One of the guys in the hide said he had been waiting twenty-five years to see one.