After Roger and I had gone
through the moths I had trapped we went and picked David up before heading to
Uppingham to meet Ken. The journey to
Frampton was uneventful and we just saw a couple of Red Kites and two Kestrels
before we arrived at the reserve.
Initially we stood in the car
park scanning the trees and bushes along the footpath to the reservoir hoping
for a Turtle Dove. We didn’t see any
Turtle Doves but we did have up to eight Tree Sparrows and five Yellow Wagtails
in the hedge and there was a flock of circa twenty Ruff observed in flight and
I saw a Common Sandpiper in flight. We
decided that we would go along the footpath to the reservoir to continue
looking for Turtle Dove as Roger hadn’t seen any this year. David and Ken went on ahead whilst Roger and
I stopped to view and area of mud alongside the hedgerow. There was a Little Ringed Plover and a Green
Sandpiper feeding in the area and we then had a second Common Sandpiper on the
other side of the road before we caught up with David and Ken.
They had gone just beyond the
footpath and were scanning the fields and had just seen a Turtle Dove in flight
but it had disappeared. Roger then found
a Turtle Dove perched in a bush but it was quite distant and with the heat haze
the views were rather poor and so we set off down the footpath to the
reservoir.
We stopped near a seat
overlooking a marshy area and whilst we didn’t see quite so many Ruff there was
at least twelve feeding amongst the vegetation.
Two Greenshanks flew in but didn’t stay too long and as there was little
else we continued onto the reservoir.
Juvenile Little Grebe
On arrival at the reservoir we
set our scopes up to view the hedge and in particular a group of dead trees,
which we had seen Turtle Doves in the past.
There was another Little Grebe and a couple of Great Crested Grebes
amongst the Tufted Duck and Mallard on the reservoir and there were several
Reed Warblers showing occasionally in the reeds alongside the hedgerow. Eventually a Turtle Dove flew in and stayed
quite some time singing and preening, providing some nice views.
We eventually called it a day
and headed back to the centre and after checking what was about drove to the
old car park for lunch. We scanned the
area both to the south and north but other than a few Avocets and Black-tailed
Godwits there was little else but I did pick up a single Golden Plover in
flight which then dropped onto the marsh when we were able to have distant
views.
Having finished our lunch we
walked south along the sea wall towards the raptor watch point but we saw very
little before we reached the watch point.
We spent awhile looking over the salt marsh but saw very little and
eventually headed inland to view the marsh to the north. As we were passing through a gate a Buzzard
flew along the sea wall towards us before disappearing over the salt
marsh. There had been Wood Sandpiper a
couple of days ago in this area but all we managed was a Little Ringed Plover,
a Black-tailed Godwit and a Redshank and I did see a Whitethroat.
We walked back to the sea wall
and settled down at the raptor watch point again and this time had a bit more
luck. We hadn’t back too long when David
picked up a nice male Marsh Harrier, which flew in front of us and gave some
nice views before it set off over the marsh.
A few minutes David said I have another bird of prey, no I think it’s
the owl and it turned out to be one of the two Short-eared Owls that have been
present for a while. It spent quite some
time hunting but was always pretty distant but the views were ok through the
scope. I then picked up a female Marsh Harrier
that was some distance away and unfortunately it dropped down before anyone
else got on it.
Pleased with our more
productive second stop at the watch point we made our way back to Roger’s
car. We were considering moving on to
Barnack Hills and Holes but when we stopped to talk to a couple of birders from
Leicestershire they had seen a Mediterranean Gull from the 360 hide and so we
decided to stay and hopefully catch up with the gull.
After parking I nipped into
the centre and established that there had been several reports of two Spotted
Redshanks in the area north of where we had taken lunch. I informed the rest when I eventually caught
up with them near the 360° Hide an agreed we
would look for them after searching for the Mediterranean Gull.
There were more birders
visible from the 360°
Hide and included c.250 Knot, several Ruff, over 200 Black-tailed
Godwits and six Bar-tailed Godwits.
There were plenty of Black-headed Gulls but despite several scans we
couldn’t find the Mediterranean Gull but did see three Common Terns and David
and I had distant views of a Hobby as it flew south near the sea wall.
Roosting Knot
Black-tailed Godwit
Black-tailed Godwit
As we reached the main path
from the hide I thought I heard a Whimbrel but David didn’t think it was,
whilst Ken and Roger didn’t hear anything.
A few second later I heard the call again and this time David agreed that
it was a Whimbrel. We heard the call
several more times before we picked a party of ten birds in flight and watched
as they headed off in a south-westerly direction.
On reaching the road to the
old car park we walked towards the sea wall hoping we would find the Spotted
Redshanks but despite an extensive search we didn’t but three Golden Plovers
and a Curlew flew over. Disappointed we
couldn’t find the Spotted Redshank but satisfied with our day’s birding we
headed back to the car and after a coffee before we set off home.
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