Apples for Health- Rare black-winged stilts seen in Britain

Rare black-winged stilts seen in Britain

CHESTER, England, May 31 (UPI) -- The first new family of black-winged stilts seen in Britain for 20 years was making a home for itself Saturday near a Cheshire park, observers said.

The country's recent warm weather has helped the hatchlings along, conservation officials told The Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that the spindly-legged species is rarely seen in the British Isles and is much more common in mainland Europe.

"Black-winged stilts have extraordinarily long, spindly pink legs and even at 1-day old they are abnormally long," Tim Melling of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told the newspaper. "The chicks are a buff color with fluffy feathers and speckles on their back and head. They have really long, fine beaks like a needle."

The bird watching group says the stilt family is visible using telescopes and binoculars near Marbury Country Park in northwestern England.