Sandpiper sight so stag-gering...

STAG parties are notorious for bawdy behaviour - with oaths that what happens on tour forever stays on tour.

- Stuart Winter

But there was no need for vows of omerta on my prenuptials away with pals at one of the lesser known fleshpots of the western world - Wisbech Sewage Farm.

Back in the 1970s, this insalubrious Fenland location with its distinctive aromas inspired bird-watching pilgrims to seek out rarities arriving from all points of the compass.

North American “peeps” - small shorebirds plumed in the rusty colours of the tundra - would pitter patter on gooey sludge beds alongside Asiatic counterparts, an astonishing illustration of how birds weighing less than an ounce travel huge distances on migration.