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Just as I'm finishing my tea this evening my phone rings. I look at the screen - it's Matthew. Shit (sorry Matthew!) - that can only mean there's a good bird at Rutland Water. Let's hope it's something I don't need as I've got to go to a meeting about the LROS interpretative boards in about 15 minutes.

I answer it. "Do you want a first for the County?" says Matthew. No, no, no, no! I get at most two county ticks a year these days; I don't need one to turn up at 7pm on a night when I've got to go to a fucking meeting. "What is it?" "Buff-breasted Sandpiper on Lagoon 4!" Bollocks, bollocks and more bollocks.

Now, if it had been 'just' some sort of committee meeting I'd have been off to Rutland Water like a shot. But as I'm being paid to do these boards I feel it would be unprofessional not to go, especially as this particular meeting has already been postponed twice. So I put the news out on Twitter, turn my phone off and go to the meeting.

Oh well, perhaps it will still be there tomorrow. And there might be a flying pig perched on the Osprey nesting platform as well. Although as Richard Bayldon has just pointed out to me, the last two Cambs birds stayed for a few days, so you never know. The difficult decision now is whether to get out there early tomorrow or wait for news..... (I must stop ending all my blog posts with ..... - it's very lazy!)