Roger was driving today and he
David and I left a little later than usual due to both David and I having our
moth traps out last night. We picked Ken
up in Uppingham and then continued onto Frampton Marsh.
We saw very little on route
and arrived in the car park at Frampton just before 10:00. We had a scan over the water meadow to the
west of the car park, which was now very dry and other than a few Goldfinch and
Linnets and two Yellow Wagtails flying over we found nothing else. We then made our way to the 360°
Hide seeing hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits on the reedbed
wetland and a juvenile Sedge Warbler before reaching the turn leading to the
hides.
Sedge Warbler
On entering the 360 Hide I was
surprised to find that most of the birds were fairly distant as much of the mud
had dried. However looking east from the
hide there were lots of waders, mostly Ringed Plovers and Dunlin with a few
Curlew Sandpiper. As we scanned through
the birds there were also seven Knot, two Greenshank and two Redshank and I
also found a Little Stint, which proved to be quite elusive for Ken and Roger,
although they both did manage to eventually find it. There was a mass panic whilst we were in the
hide and we then saw a Sparrowhawk, which was picked up by another birder, as
it flew off to the east.
Mass panic
Looking west from the hide
there were again good numbers of Ringed Plover and Dunlin as well as more
Curlew Sandpiper. We also found another
four Little Stints, several Ruff and a Snipe and several, a Little Stint and
several Curlew Sandpipers, came quite close, providing good photo
opportunities, although the light was far from perfect.
Ringed Plover
Little Stint
Little Stint
Little Stint
Little Stint
Little Stint
Little Stint
Dunlin
Curlew Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
We eventually decided to go
and look for a Corn Bunting but called in the Reedbed Hide first. On entering the hide there were three
distinct flocks of Black-tailed Godwits and there must have been at least 600
and there were also twenty-three Avocets, four Ruff and several more Curlew
Sandpipers.
Black-tailed Godwits
Mallard
On reaching the eastern path
whilst scanning for a Corn Bunting Ken found a Clouded Yellow, which David
unfortunately didn’t manage to see and with no sign of a Corn Bunting we went
back to the car park. After some
discussion we agreed to have lunch in the old car park near the sea wall and
then walk east along the wall in search of a Whinchat.
As we walked along the sea
wall we stopped at one of the benches to view the fresh marsh and found several
more Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Ruff and Snipe and fifteen Golden Plover flew
over. David then picked up a distant
Marsh Harrier over the salt marsh and when Ken and I caught up with David and
Roger near the bend in the wall David had located the Whinchat on the fence
below the sea wall. As we scoped the
bird from some distance several Redshank flew out to the Wash presumably to
feed.
We continued along the sea
wall and gradually managed to get close enough to the Whinchat to take some
photos.
Juvenile Whinchat
Juvenile Whinchat
Juvenile Whinchat
We had seen a Wheatear on the
fresh marsh and then found three more on top of the sea wall before they
dropped out of sight. I did locate them
again along the sea wall that runs out towards Boston.
Wheatear
After dropping off the sea
wall to the path we continued to the East Hide where we found more Curlew
Sandpipers and a Little Ringed Plover.
Glyn Sellers was in the hide and after a brief chat about his trip to
Alaska and looking at some of his excellent photos we completed a circular walk
back to the car.
Curlew Sandpiper
When we reached the car Glyn
was coming the other way and informed us that a juvenile Spotted Redshank had
just flown onto the flash to the right of the path. We walked down the path and found the Spotted
Redshank feeding with a Redshank and as we were watching a second called and
flew, which was followed by a third.
Juvenile Spotted Redshanks
With news of a Pied Flycatcher
near the reservoir and with a chance of seeing Turtle Dove we drove to the
reservoir but there was no sign of either the Pied Flycatcher or Turtle
Dove. A Sparrowhawk and a Green Sandpiper
flew over but we eventually had leave and set off for home after a good day’s
birding.
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