At the weekend I was at the London Wetland Centre where I saw four black-tailed godwits, apparently. Actually I had no idea what was going on. Everyone else in the hide was clearly excited about something, and I was peering out through my binoculars with great enthusiasm, but I could only see mallards. Fortunately there was a guy in the hide who was not only wearing a confidence-inducing London Wetland Centre T-shirt, but he also had a telescope directed towards the godwits. He explained to me that a) they're rare and b) they wouldn't be hanging around. They'd flown in at lunchtime, would feed for an hour or two, and then go on their way. He also told me that godwits are tremendous migrators, who fly from the Arctic to New Zealand in seven days flat without stopping. Crikey.