I picked David up around 06:30
and we headed to the Egleton car park where we met Malcolm before continuing to
Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire.
There had been a good
selection of waders at Frampton recently that included Little Stint, Pectoral
Sandpiper and Curlew Sandpiper and we were hoping for more of the same today.
When we arrived, we drove to
the parking area near the sea wall as our plan was to walk along the sea wall
towards East Hide and then complete the circuit back to the car. Our only concern was the weather as the
forecast was for heavy showers and getting caught on the sea wall would not be
pleasant. However, on arrival it was dry
and quite bright with only slight north-west wind.
We scanned the area to the
north of the parking area and found a couple of Spotted Redshank and quite a
few Ruff, along with good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets. To the south we found three Ringed Plovers, a
Common Sandpiper and three Greenshanks and two Golden Plover and three Snipe
flew over.
We eventually reached the sea
wall finding two Whimbrel on the saltmarsh and as we started to make our way
towards the East Hide the number of Black-tailed Godwits was more evident and I
suspect that there must have been well over 500. We also found another two Spotted Redshanks
and there was a good number of Dunlin scattered over the area. We spent quite some time scanning through the
Dunlin but other than three Ringed Plovers we couldn’t find anything else. David moved further along the bank leaving
Malcolm and I still going through the Dunlin.
As we were scanning all the birds suddenly took to flight and we picked
up a Peregrine overhead that just appeared to pass over.
Most of the birds started to
return but some, particularly some of the Black-tailed Godwits had gone off to
the Wash and shortly afterwards the birds around the 360 Hide area took to
flight when we picked up two Spoonbills.
We re-joined David who had found a couple of Yellow Wagtails of which we
must have had fifteen by the end of the visit.
David had gone on ahead again and when we joined him he pointed out the
long staying Whooper Swan, which was with a party of Mute Swan in front of the
East Hide and I then picked up a Marsh Harrier over the saltmarsh.
We hadn’t seen a great deal
else as we entered East Hide where we found the Whooper Swan and the two
Spoonbills. There was also a party of
Ruff and there was a number of Shelduck and Avocets roosting along with even
more Black-tailed Godwits and a Greenshank near the Whooper Swan. David then noticed a party of five or six
small waders and suggested there was a summer plumaged Knot with them. I soon had the birds in the scope and could
see they were all Dunlin except for the presumed Knot, which when I had a good
look I was sure was a summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper. Malcolm was now also on the birds and agreed
with my identification and when David had another look he also agreed.
We continued walking around
the circuit and called in Reedbed Hide but other than masses of Canada Geese
there was little else. When we reached
the turning back to the sea wall we scanned the area towards the 360 Hide as
this is where the Pectoral Sandpiper had been yesterday along with Common and
Wood Sandpipers. David found a Common
Sandpiper and we then had two Little Ringed Plovers but there was no sign of
the other two sandpipers, although the Wood Sandpiper was reported later.
When we got back to the
parking area there was further disturbance and we picked up three Spoonbills,
which then alighted not too far away from us.
Spoonbills
Spoonbills
Spoonbill
Spoonbills
Spoonbills
We drove back to the main car
park for lunch where we found other birders watching Turtle Doves in the
hedge. After parking we got the scopes
on the birds, seeing three but only one was showing well. There were plenty of other birds in the hedgerow
and we saw a Willow Warbler, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Whitethroat, at least ten
Tree Sparrows and several Goldfinches.
The Turtle Doves remained on view the whole time we were having lunch
but disappeared shortly afterwards.
We decided to walk along the
footpath to look for some Green Sandpipers that had been reported earlier. David and I sat down on the bench overlooking
the marsh and although there were several areas of open water there was no sign
of any Green Sandpipers. David then said
Malcolm has got something and we walked back down the path and found he had
been photographing a Turtle Dove but it flew off as David and I reached
him. He then walked further down the
path and found five Green Sandpiper and when we joined him we found a sixth
bird.
Male Linnet
We had seen several showers to
the south but it had remained dry during the whole of our visit but it was now
looking a bit threatening and so we went back to the car after an excellent
morning at this supper reserve.
We set off back to Rutland
Water and ran into some heavy rain not long after leaving the village of
Frampton and it was clear as we made our way back there had been plenty of rain
between Frampton and Rutland Water.
We had called Ken who had been
to the Birdfair Volunteer’s Meeting earlier to see if he had seen anything. He was in Sandpiper Hide and had seen Ringed
Plover, Dunlin, Curlew and a probable Whimbrel but nothing else. As we approached the centre Chris Park was coming
out and he informed us that there was a Garganey on Lagoon Five and so we set
off for the 360 Hide.
When we got to the hide
another birder informed us he had a Curlew but hadn’t seen the Garganey. We scanned the lagoon but there was no sign
of the Garganey but I then noticed a bird emerge from behind an island and when
I got the scope on it I could see it was the Garganey. It was a rather nicely marked bird and the
facial markings really stood out. There
a was another heavy shower whilst we were in the hide and second Curlew came in
and when it landed near the first there was a bit of an altercation between the
birds, with one eventually flying off to another island.
As the rain eased we headed
for Snipe Hide and found nine Green Sandpipers on the Wet Meadow flash. Chris picked up an Osprey and we then had a
second more distant bird. We called at
Mallard Hide to look for a Great White Egret without success but did have a
couple of Hobbies over Brown’s Island before we called it a day.
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