Dave, Ken, Roger and I went to
Frampton Marsh today where there had been a Baird’s Sandpiper for a few
days. There were quite a few birders
present when we arrived but there had been no sign of the Baird’s. We scanned the area where the Baird’s had
been and found several Avocets, a couple of Little Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin,
several Ruff, two Snipe, several Black-tailed Godwits, two Common Sandpipers, a
Green Sandpiper and a Turnstone. As we
were scanning the scrape another indicated that there had been a Merlin perched
on a gate but it appeared to have gone.
We scanned the area and Dave picked it up perched on a distant fence
post but it was rather a long way off and so we moved on towards the track to
the 360° hide. When we scanned the area we couldn’t see but
then Roger saw it flying close to the fence but it appeared to drop into the
grass and we didn’t see it again. There
were three Wood Sandpipers fairly close and a flock of Dunlin could also be
seen on the other scrape and so we decided to move to the 360° hide.
When we arrived at the 360° there were masses of waders, which were
presumably a high tide roost. The flock
included hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits and Dunlin with plenty of Knot and
Grey Plover and we did manage to find two adult Curlew Sandpipers. There were also good numbers of Redshanks and
more Ruff and at least four Ringed Plovers and another Little Ringed Plover as
well as two Spotted Redshanks and a Greenshank.
One of the Wood Sandpipers came close to hide and allowed me to get a
few reasonable shots of it.
We returned to the centre and
continued to the footpath leading to the reservoir in the hope of seeing a
Turtle Dove. We walked all the way to
the reservoir but there was no sign of any Turtle Doves but we did have another
Green Sandpiper and nineteen Golden Plover flew over.
After some lunch we decided to
go to the sea wall where we added our nineteenth wader of the day a
Curlew. There was also four distant
Brent Goose, which were obviously birds that had for some reason not departed
with the majority in the spring.
It was disappointing that the
Baird’s had departed but the number of waders present and the Merlin eased the
disappointment.
Ringed Plover
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
We finally decided to carry
out our original plan, which was to visit Barnack Hills and Holes reserve in
Cambridgeshire to hopefully Chalk Hill Blue butterflies.
When we arrived in the car
park it was still very warm, although the sun was becoming hazier. As we started to walk out onto the reserve
there were clearly a number of butterflies on the wing and it wasn’t long
before we saw our first Chalk Hill Blue.
We didn’t have worried though as they and Six-spot Burnet moths were
numerous. We also had Large White, Small
White, Common Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Marble White, Meadow
Brown and Large Skipper and we also found a Shaded Broad-bar, Common Carpet and
Silver Y. A Green Woodpecker was heard
calling and then seen in flight and Red Kite flew over.
Chalk Hill Blue
Pyramid Orchid
On route home we made a brief
stop at Eye Brook Reservoir where we had three Little Egrets, two Red Kites, a
Common Sandpiper and four Common Terns.
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