Dave and I had discussed the
possibility of going to Frampton today as there had been a Pectoral Sandpiper
and Temminck’s Stint present for a couple of days. I had an appointment with the nurse at 09:25
but gone in and out early and with birds being reported today we set off
09:50. We arrived in the car park just
after 11:30 and took an early lunch before setting off to the east hide.
Several birders were viewing a
bird of prey that was some distance away from the centre and Merlin was mentioned. It was standing on a post and the silhouette
clearly suggested Sparrowhawk with its long tail and long spindly legs clearly
visible. News wasn’t good on either the
Pectoral Sandpiper or the Temminck’s Stint as they had not been seen since
early this morning. Just after walking
past the 360° hide turn we picked up several small
waders that included both juvenile Little Stint and juvenile Curlew
Sandpiper. We walked slowly along the
path towards the east hide where we had more Little Stints and Curlew
Sandpipers and one Little Stint provided some interest as it was almost in
winter plumage. There were also at least
three Little Ringed Plovers, five Ringed Plovers, several Dunlin, Ruff, Snipe
and Black-tailed Godwits and four Spotted Redshanks as well as several
Pintail. As we approached a group of
birders we were informed that the Temminck’s had been seen but was now out of
sight. We didn’t have wait too long
before it became visible and we had some reasonable views over the next
half-hour or so. We news that the
Pectoral Sandpiper was showing from east hide we eventually moved on.
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
When we arrived at the East
Hide there was no sign of the Pectoral Sandpiper and it apparently had not been
seen for over half an hour. We sat down
and remained scanning the area for quite some time but the only waders were
those seen previously.
Whilst we were in the hide
another birder questioned the identity of a bird he had picked up flying
towards the hide. It was approaching
from the west and Dave and I had to stand to try and see it, although it wasn’t
easy looking past the other birders. One
of them called Little Gull and I managed to fire off a few shots as it came
quite close. It turned and headed off
back towards the 360° and both Dave and I sat down again
and started scanning for the Pectoral Sandpiper. As I sat scanning there was something about
the Little Gull that I had only seen through the view finder, that didn’t add
up and I looked at the photos. It was
clearly a tern and my first impression was White-winged Black. I showed a photo to Dave who immediately said
White-winged Black. I asked the other
birders if it was still present informing them that we thought it was a White-winged
Black Tern. It was but it then decided
to fly off to the east and went quite some way before it returned and started
feeding over the marsh again. I put the
news out on Bird Guides but it only remained for about an hour as there was no
sign at 15:40. Whilst in the hide there
were at least four Avocets on the scrape and circa forty Golden Plover flew in
and two Curlew and four Turnstones flew over.
Some of the waders came quite close to the hide, including the
Temminck’s Sting and a Little Stint, which provided some nice photo opportunities.
White-winged Black Tern
White-winged Black Tern
White-winged Black Tern
Little Egret
Avocet
Golden Plover
Black-tailed Godwit
Snipe
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Dunlin
Juvenile Temminck's Stint
Juvenile Temminck's Stint
Juvenile Temminck's Stint
Pied Wagtail
Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Goldfinch
Yellow Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Linnet
We eventually gave up on the
pectoral Sandpiper and walked back to the centre via the sea bank. The salt marsh was extremely quiet with
virtually nothing being seen but there were three Spoonbills roosting on the
fresh marsh and we also saw the Glossy Ibis near the old car park. As we walked back along the main track there
was very little with just a few Black-tailed Godwits flying over.
Spoonbills
Despite not seeing the
Pectoral Sandpiper it had been a good day with lots of waders and the added
excitement of identifying a White-winged Black Tern.
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