Roger picked me up and we
drove the short distance to David’s who then drove us to the Egleton car park
at Rutland Water where Malcolm joined us before we headed off to Frampton Marsh
in Lincolnshire.
We saw a Jay just beyond
Spalding and a Buzzard on the ground as we approached Frampton and arrived in
the car park at Frampton at around 09:00.
Malcolm picked up a lone Swift before we got out of the car, which we
all managed to see and as there had been a Pectoral Sandpiper and Red-necked
Phalarope here yesterday we were hopeful of a good day’s birding.
As we started walking along
the path to the 360 Hide we found six Ruff and a Dunlin feeding on the muddy
edges close to the centre and we picked up a Snipe in flight amongst a party of
Lapwing. There were numerous hirundines
over the reserve but most appeared to be Sand Martins but I did see a couple of
Swallows and a single House Martin.
Juvenile Ruff
Juvenile Ruff
When we entered the hide we
found Mike Snow already there and the news wasn’t good as the Red-necked
Phalarope hadn’t been seen. I started by
looking east as this was where most of the birds appeared to be and found a
small party of Dunlin feeding to the left of the hide but all I could find
amongst them was a single Ringed Plover, which was surprisingly the only one I
saw during the visit. I then noticed a
party of Spotted Redshanks feeding beyond these in deeper water and we
eventually had as many as fifteen.
Spotted Redshanks
There were nine Spoonbills on
the scrape and a second party of Dunlin just to the right of the hide. As I scanned through the flock I picked out a
juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and a few minutes later a Little Stint. Not everyone in the hide managed to get on
the stint before the flock flew and then someone picked up a Peregrine, which
proceeded to cause havoc for a good ten minutes, continually flushing most of
the birds, including a fast flock of Black-tailed Godwits.
Black-tailed Godwits
When the Peregrine eventually disappeared,
there were far fewer birds visible from the hide, although the nine Spoonbills
were still present. Roger then picked up
a wader, which he thought was a stint but others concluded that it was a Common
Sandpiper. I had seen the bird but it
didn’t seem right for a Common Sandpiper when someone said there were two. I then saw them a little better and realised
that Roger’s was correct and they were both juvenile Little Stints. We then found the juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
again but there was no sign of any of the Dunlin. David then picked up a tenth Spoonbill flying
west above the sea wall. During our stay
in the 360 Hide we had also seen seven Avocets, a Ruff and a Greenshank and
there were a few Black-tailed Godwits scattered around the scrape.
Juvenile Spoonbill
Three Juvenile Spoonbills
Nine Spoonbills alighting
Five of the Spoonbills
Nine Spoonbills feeding
We eventually left the hide
and walked east towards East Hide, seeing another four Swift. We stooped at the turn to the East Hide to view
the massive flock of Black-tailed Godwits but some were clearly leaving and
presumably going out onto The Wash to feed.
Five Ruff flew by as we approached the hide but there was very little
else visible from the path.
There were four other birders
in the hide when we entered and it wasn’t easy viewing as two seemed determined
to occupy spaces that would have accommodated two people. However, there was a juvenile Common
Sandpiper right in front of the hide and two of the Spoonbills came quite
close. David also re-found the two
juvenile Little Stints but there were still no sign of any Dunlin and so we
left the hide and went onto the sea wall.
Common Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Spoonbill
Spoombill
Spoonbill
Most of the Black-tailed
Godwits had now gone out toThe Wash and a few more followed as we walked along
the sea wall, leaving just a couple of hundred on the marsh. There were quite a few Yellow Wagtails
particularly amongst the cattle but other than a few Meadow Pipits we were
seeing very few passerines. Another group
of birders said that there was a Wood Sandpiper viewable from the sea wall a
little further on. We stopped and viewed
the area and found three Greenshanks and a couple of Redshanks but the Wood
Sandpiper wasn’t with them. Malcolm
moved further along the bank to get a different view and David also started to
move towards him. Roger then said I
think I might have the Wood Sandpiper but its walked out of view. David then shouted that Malcolm had it but I
stayed with Roger and we had reasonable views of the Wood Sandpiper when it
came back into view.
When we reached the end of the
sea wall two other birders were watching a Wheatear, which was a little
distant, but viewable and we also saw a Marsh Harrier. We had seen the summering Whooper Swan
earlier from the sea wall but had better views as we walked back along the road
towards the centre as it was feeding with a Mute Swan close to the road and
seventeen Golden Plover flew over.
Whooper Swan
Whooper Swan
When we got back to the centre
and checked for news hadn’t been a lot else reported, other than a Turtle Dove,
and having no luck looking for this during lunch we headed for Rutland Water.
Malcolm saw a Red Kite as we
entered Uffington, which the rest of us managed to miss and we saw an Osprey on
one of the perches on Lagoon Four before we parked on the unnamed road in the
North Arm at Rutland Water.
Malcolm indicated that another
birder had seen the Spotted Flycatchers near Tim’s cottage and so we walked
back down the road to view the area.
There were plenty of birds, including a Chiffchaff, but there was no
sign of the flycatchers. As I walked
back to the car a Hobby flew over but there was very little on the north shore
from where we had parked. We walked
through the gate to view North Arm and found a Ruddy Shelduck and a
Yellow-legged Gull on the north shore but there was no sign of any waders. We waked further out to view the southern
shoreline but again surprisingly there were no waders. Roger then asked if there had been any
Black-necked Grebes as he thought he had just had two. I moved to view the area and soon found two
distant Black-necked Grebes, which were between the spit and the water
tower. They were quite distant but one
looked as though there was still traces of summer plumage and presumably they
were both moulting adult birds.
Having exhausted the North Arm,
we went back to look for the Spotted Flycatchers but had no luck but I did have
a Treecreeper briefly before we went to Egleton and the centre to view Lagoon
One. There were six Pintail in front of
the long island, three Dunlin amongst the geese and two Common Terns on one of
the small exposed islands. We then heard
a Kingfisher and Mike Snow, who had also comeback from Frampton, said he could
see it. He indicated that it was on a
sign, which was in the reeds, but when we looked we couldn’t find it. I stood up and scanned the area and saw then
sign and then Kingfisher but it flew before I could help get the others on to
it and I then saw it again in flight as it went over the bund onto Lagoon Two.
With little else we decided to
go to Eyebrook Reservoir rather than walking to the northern lagoons. Malcolm had also called here first thing this
morning when there was a Great White Egret present and as we approached the
inlet we could see the egret in the first bay.
We drove a little further along and parked where we had a good view of
the inlet. The Great White Egret was
still in view and we also located a Little Egret, a Ringed Plover, five Ruff, a
Green Sandpiper and two Greenshank between the inlet and Holyoaks Farm. Three Buzzards were observed, two over the
Leicestershire side and one over the Rutland side and we saw Kestrels near the
bridge, over a Leicestershire filed and towards Stoke Dry.
We eventually called it a day
and headed off seeing a Buzzard on the ground as we approached Tur Langton and
three Red-legged Partridge between Tur Langton and Carlton Curlieu.
Whilst we hadn’t seen
everything we had hoped for a Frampton it had still be a very enjoyable day’s
birding in which I recorded eighty-eight species.
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