Dave, Roger and I set of for
Frampton Marsh today in the hope of seeing yesterday’s Lapland and Snow
Buntings. The journey over was pretty
uneventful seeing three Buzzards and a single Red Kite. We arrived in an empty car park just after
nine o’clock and found there was a cool easterly wind but at least it was
dry. We set off down the surfaced road
towards the sea wall and found the Glossy Ibis quite close to the road, which
allowed me to get several nice photos despite the dull conditions.
Glossy Ibis
We continued on to the sea
wall seeing a few Little Egrets and masses of wildfowl on the marshes, which
appeared to be mainly Brent Geese and Wigeon but there was also Mallard and
Shoveler in small numbers. On reaching
the sea wall we walked towards the East Hide where the buntings had been
reported yesterday. There were a couple
of Curlew and several Redshanks on the salt marsh and we saw a distant Marsh
Harrier.
There were three other birders
in the hide when we arrived and despite an extensive search there was no sign
of the buntings. Brent Geese were coming
and going all the time and the Wigeon must have totalled several thousands and
were clearly the most numerous duck by some distance. There were at least seven Pintail and twenty
plus Shelduck as well as small numbers of Teal and Shoveler and two
Gadwall. A large party of Black-tailed
Godwits flew in and I then found five Dunlin and six Curlew flew over. Roger also picked up a distant Marsh Harrier,
which was almost certainly different to the one we had seen earlier. We eventually called it a day and set off
back to the centre just as another group of birders arrived. One of them told us where the buntings had
been yesterday but there was still no sign and so we continued on our way.
Brent Goose
Brent Goose
Pair of Gadwall
Drake Wigeon
Feeding Wigeon near the hide
More Wigeon joining the feeding flock
We called at the 360°
hide on the way back and there were seventy-three Black-tailed
Godwits and a Sparrowhawk flew low over the lagoon causing some
disturbance. We then noticed the birders
we had seen as we left the East Hide were all on top of the sea wall and
appeared to be interested in something.
When they continued to remain there we decided to go back and on meeting
some of them returned they had in fact found the Lapland Bunting feeding with
several Meadow Pipits in the corner of the salt marsh. However the messages were mixed and one
indicated that it had flown off. When we
arrived there were three other birders looking for it and as we walked towards
the corner we flushed several Meadow Pipits that then dropped down to feed in
the corner. We scanned the corner seeing
five Meadow Pipits but no bunting, when one of the other birders found it
slightly higher on the bank. We then had
some reasonable scope views in what was now a quite strong wind. As we walked back to the centre we had a
light shower and after some lunch decided to go back and call at Rutland Water.
As we returned to Rutland
Water it was clear that there had been some quite heavy rain but on arrival it
was dry. We went into the centre where
we found eight Pintail, forty-eight Golden Plovers, a Dunlin, six Snipe and a
Curlew. With reports of the two Great
White Egrets in the north arm and with not too much daylight remaining we
decided to go. We soon found one of the
Great White Egrets feeding at the edge of the bund. We also counted nineteen Little Egrets but
were unable to find the second Great White Egret. Dave then picked up a couple of Red-crested
Pochard and we eventually found six males and five females. Dave then had a purple patch when he found an
adult Yellow-legged Gull and an adult Caspian Gull bathing on the water but
they all flew before Roger got on them and we could not relocate them when the
gulls settled again. As we continued to
scan for the Black-necked Grebes Dave found a Great Northern Diver, which
eventually came quite close when we were able to determine that it was a
juvenile. Most Great Northern Divers
usually arrive later in the month and so this was an unexpected and good find.
Our day out had proved quite
productive despite the strong wind and we had also been lucky having little
rain.
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