A rare bird spotted on Breydon Water arrived on our shores after a close encounter with a wind turbine service boat, it has emerged.

Dick Thurlow, a fisherman who also skippers service boats to the Scroby Sands wind farm, was waiting to take workers back to port last Friday when he saw an unusual bird flying around one of the turbines.

'We were actually sat having a cup of tea and I said to Mick Nutt, who was the skipper, that I'd never seen a bird like it,' explained Mr Thurlow.

''When we went to recover the guys from the turbine, it flew down and hit the front of the boat. It flopped down onto the deck. It was absolutely exhausted, it was skin and bone.'

Mr Thurlow carefully picked up the bird, again remarking how unusual it was, and decided to keep in safe on the deck until they got back to Yarmouth.

When they reached the harbour, it was 'full of life' again.

'I picked it up again it flew away out of my hands; and I am 99 per cent sure that's the Great Knot they've been watching all week.

'It must have got caught up in the bad weather we'd had and gone a little of course.'

The migratory Great Knot, a small grey and white mottled wader that had only been spotted in the UK three times before, breeds in Siberia and is more commonly seen in Asia and Australia.