David, Roger and I had agreed
we would go to Frampton today as there had been a couple of Black-winged Stilts
present for a couple of days. However as
the weather forecast was pretty awful for this morning we decided that we would
wait and go late morning if the birds were still there. The first news was that there was a possible
White-rumped Sandpiper visible from the old car park, which was then confirmed
shortly afterwards but there was no news on the stilts. After speaking to David we agreed we would go
at about eleven as the White-rumped was a pretty good bird anyway.
Roger picked me up and he then
drove to David’s before setting off to Frampton, knowing that the Black-winged
Stilts were not there but hoping for the sandpiper. On arrival we drove to the old car park where
we found Steve and Erik amongst another group of birders. There were plenty of waders on the wet
meadows both east and west, most of which were tundra Ringed Plovers but I also
saw a Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Redshank and David saw a couple of
summer plumage Curlew Sandpipers but there was no sign of the
White-rumped. There was also a nice male
Garganey.
Steve indicated that he and
Erik were going back to the centre and then walking to the east hide and
suggested that we went east along the sea wall towards the east hide, which we
agreed to do. There now appeared to be
very few waders in the area east of the old car park and initially we saw just
two Oystercatchers, a Black-tailed Godwit and few Redshanks as we walked along
the sea wall. However as we went further
we began finding a few Ringed Plovers and I could see even more and some Dunlin
further along but it was difficult using a scope due to the now fresh north
west wind. We therefore decided to go on
further and despite the wind we could now identify the birds much easier but
all I could see were Ringed Plovers and a few Dunlin. David then said he thought he might have it
and gave us directions and I soon found the particular bird but Roger was finding
it more difficult. David then saw it fly
and confirmed that it had a white-rump.
We walked further along and joined Dave Holman who was sitting on the
bank and we were now much closer and had some reasonable views. I had called Steve to let him know we had the
bird and Erik then joined us with Steve following up a few minutes later. The waders then suddenly flew and settled
closer to the path to east hide and I and Erik walked the short distance and
dropped down from the sea wall and along the path to the hide. The wind was less noticeable here and we
found the bird quite close and over the next half hour we had some cracking
views and also found a winter plumaged Curlew Sandpiper as well.
White-rumped Sandpiper (Erik Ansell)
Eventually David, Roger and I
decided we would walk back to the car by completing the circuit. As we set off there was a nasty looking black
cloud approaching and so we quickened the pace and went into reedbed hide. It was just a few minutes later when the rain
arrived and we were pretty pleased we had made it back as it was extremely
heavy. We failed to see the reported
Mediterranean Gulls amongst the Black-headed Gulls as most were hidden by the
vegetation. After the rain had passed we
set off back to the car and reached it without a further downpour. Since leaving the east hide area we hadn’t
seen a great deal but we did find a Barnacle Goose amongst a flock of Canada
Geese and we heard a single Sedge Warbler and several Reed Warblers. On reaching the car park we scanned to the
east and found a party of Dunlin that contained three summer plumaged Curlew
Sandpipers, one being a very dark looking individual. Again Ringed Plovers seemed to be everywhere,
although there were very few birds to the west of the car park now but we felt
that there must have been at least 100 on site.
No comments:
Post a Comment