Penduline Tit #22

After a recommendation from LifesJourney, today I headed to Weymouth to do some urban birding. There are two RSPB reserves right in the centre of Weymouth within 2 miles of each other. 
Within 15 minutes of arriving, I met up with a guy I had met at Durlston Country Park yesterday. He had come to see the bearded tits - I had come to see anything there was :) 
We found a couple who I had asked for directions when I arrived, at the concrete bridge and I asked if they had seen anything good - just a couple of reed buntings, they said and pointed to where they saw them. The guy I was with looked over and excitedly said  "that bottom one's a penduline tit!!!" Until yesterday I had not even heard of this bird so to see one so quickly was such a thrill and VERY lucky indeed. It displayed well for a minute or two and then flew off, but of course with it being so uncommon in the UK, it has to be my blip of the day. 
But I wasn't finished yet - far from it. Next we were directed to a bed of reeds by another couple of birders where ELEVEN bearded tits no less, were feeding in the sunshine - one in extras. 
And no...still not finished....
After my two hours car parking were up, I got a sandwich for lunch and then went to RSPB Lodmoor a couple of miles away. 
Again the knowledge of local birders came in very handy - a ruff and a lesser yellowlegs had been around earlier, so I was off on a mission to see if I could find them. The ruff was quite easy to find and stood out nicely against the dark mud, but the yellowlegs was nowhere to be seen. So I headed off on the circuit of the reserve. Again the 2 hours went too quickly and I headed back to the car to pay for another hour. There was still that yellowlegs to find and find it I did - such a nice looking bird, apparently blown off course from the US/Canada - extras.
I then sat down next to another photographer and started chatting with him and Jackie - AKA LifesJourney appeared on the way back towards here car. We spent a few minutes talking to the guy - Dennis Gurney - about what he had seen and he was keen to show us his shots - some very good ones indeed and something to aspire to. Whilst we were chatting, he pointed out some Mediterranean Gulls (another new one for me) and a Marsh Harrier. 

It was lovely to meet Jackie -  even if we did not plan a specific place to meet, we managed to find each other eventually :)
What a fabulous day - I am definitely buying a lottery ticket this week!