Dave, Roger and I had decided
to go to Frampton Marsh today in the hope of seeing Temminck’s Stint. It had been a very wet night but the weather
improved the closer we got to Frampton and on arrival it was dry, although
there was a cool northerly wind, but this dropped during our first hour on
site. We drove down to the sea wall were
there were a few Redshanks displaying and fourteen Black-tailed Godwits, seen
in flight came down just to the southwest of the car park. A female Ruff was also observed before we
reached the sea wall as were a couple of Little Ringed Plovers and three
Barnacle Geese with several Canada Geese.
Ten of the fourteen Black-tailed Godwits
continued to scan but found
nothing new until I saw a Kingfisher quite close to Dave, which flew off almost
immediately. Dave then spoke to another
birder who said that two Temminck’s had been seen earlier. We walked back along the sea wall and just
before we reached the second seat I found one of the Temminck’s and then Roger
found the second. We had some rather
nice views and wondered how we had missed them previously but we learnt later
that those who had seen them earlier had spent forty-five minutes looking
before they found them.
Two third-year Herring Gulls
Swift over the sea wall
Brent Goose on the marsh
We continued to walk around
the path following the reedbed trail back to the centre. There were plenty of Avocets and a few Common
Terns on the marsh but very little else, although we did see a Whitethroat and
a Sedge Warbler and heard a Corn Bunting but couldn’t find it. Dave picked up a second-year Mediterranean
Gull on one of the islands from the centre before we completed the walk back to
the car, seeing a Greenshank on route.
We then went back on the sea wall to look for a Spoonbill without
success, although we did have distant views of a Little Owl close to the
reservoir. We eventually returned to the
main car park seeing several Reed Warblers and a couple of Yellow Wagtails.
Little Ringed Plover on the reedbed marsh
Male Reed Bunting from the path
Little Egret
During lunch Dave heard a
Turtle Dove and Dave and Roger saw it but on my views I was unable to rule out
Collared Dove. Roger and I then walked
along the path to the reservoir and Dave went back around the reedbed trail in
the hope of seeing a Grasshopper Warbler.
On reaching the reservoir we walked a short way towards the sea wall and
looked back at the hedge next to the footpath.
There are a number of dead trees in the hedge, which are apparently a
favoured spot for the Turtle Dove. The
only thing we could see was a couple of Woodpigeons and nothing else but we
decided to spend some time there in the hope one might appear. Whilst we were waiting Roger noticed a bird
of prey perched on the fence posts, which turned out to be a Sparrowhawk and two
Curlews were observed in the meadows. As
I was about to walk a little further down the track to see if I could get a
better view, Roger saw a Turtle Dove fly into one of the trees. We were soon scoping the bird and initially
the views were OK but it became very difficult to see and we then walked back
to the car park.
On reaching the car park Dave
hadn’t seen the Grasshopper Warbler but he had seen four Little Gulls. Roger and I went to look for them but
couldn’t find tehm and when we got back to the car Dave announced that there
were three Grey Plover on lagoon four at Rutland Water. As we were intending to go back there
anywhere we set off immediately.
As we moved east there looked
as though there was some pretty horrible weather ahead and sure enough we ran
into some pretty heavy rain with some thunder and lightning. Tim Appleton then began sending quite a few
texts and birds appeared dropping on to lagoon four to avoid the bad
weather. There were four Knot, seven
Black-tailed Godwits, Turnstone and another Grey Plover. I called Tim and got permission to drive
along the service road to the hides as the rain was absolutely torrential.
We entered the site from the
Hambleton Road and went into plover hide, which was the nearest. The Bar-tailed Godwits had departed about
fifteen minutes before we arrived but the four superb summer plumage Knots were
not too far away and we eventually found a Grey Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin and
Turnstone and there were also circa fifteen tundra Ringed Plovers and two Redshanks
on the lagoon. The rain eased for a
while before it came down rather heavily again but nothing new dropped in. As we were leaving Erik arrived and he had
walked from the Egleton car park and looked absolutely soaked and I am only too
pleased that Tim allowed us access in the vehicle.
We made a brief call at
Eyebrook Reservoir on route home but there was nothing unusual with eight
Shelduck and a drake Wigeon being the best.
On route home we saw the
Slawston Little Owl but nothing else of note.
It had been a pretty good day
out with two year ticks at Frampton and two county year ticks at Rutland Water.
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