Malcolm, Roger and I had
agreed a trip to Frampton Marsh today but with a Spotted Crake and second male
American Wigeon reported yesterday at Rutland Water we agreed to go there
first.
When Roger and I arrived in
the car park Malcom’s car was already there and presumably he had gone down to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three to look for the crake. Whilst getting ready I saw a Great Spotted
Woodpecker fly over and heard a Green Woodpecker calling before Roger and I set
off down the service road to Shoveler Hide.
We found Malcolm and another birder already in situ but there had been
no sign of the crake.
We spent a while looking for
it without success but did have a Great White Egret fly over, a female-type
Marsh Harrier over the reedbed and five Green Sandpiper to the right of the
hide. Roger and I decided we should go
to Buzzard Hide to check the other side of the reedbed and as we approached the
hide a Cetti’s Warbler called and I got the briefest of views as it dropped
deeper into the vegetation. There was no
sign of the crake and so we returned to Shoveler Hide seeing another two Great
White Egrets flying over and heading south.
When we got back into the hide
another birder had arrived but the crake still hadn’t been seen but Malcolm
pointed a Grey Wagtail. There was a
fourth Great White Egret feeding on the lagoon, three Pintail and a few Shoveler
amongst the more numerous Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal and Mallard. A small group of waders noticed feeding to
the left of the hide turned out to be four Dunlin and a Little Stint. I then picked up a Hobby as it flew behind
the hide and other birders managed to see it flying low to the south by exiting
the hide. With still no sign of the
crake Malcolm, Roger and I went to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon four to look for
the American Wigeon.
There was a party of Wigeon
feeding directly in front of the hide and Malcolm found what he thought was
yesterday’s reported male. However, when
we looked closely it was still in moult and I then wondered if this was
actually yesterday’s adult male or the moulting eclipse bird that had been
present on Lagoon Two since August 29th. I took some photos of the bird and on
comparing it with photos taken on Tuesday of the moulting male I thought there
was a chance that it was the original bird, although there were some
significant differences, particularly the forehead and the scapulars.
American Wigeon 30th
American Wigeon 26th
American Wigeon 30th
We scanned the lagoon looking
for a second bird but only found twenty-eight Pintail, a fifth Great White
Egret and two Yellow-legged Gulls. I
heard a Kingfisher calling, which Roger then found in the reeds to the left and
indicating that there was a warbler just above it. When I got on the Kingfisher the warbler was
also visible at the base of the reeds and I could see that it was a Sedge
Warbler, which is quite a late date locally.
Roger went back to Shoveler
Hide to see if the crake had appeared, whilst Malcolm and I went to Osprey Hide
on Lagoon Two to see if the original American Wigeon was still present. The light wasn’t brilliant but there were far
fewer birds on the lagoon than on recent visits, particularly Wigeon and there
was no sign of the American Wigeon.
Roger was soon back reporting that the crake had still not been seen.
As we walked back to the car
park I heard a Chiffchaff singing but we didn’t have anything else of note and
after transferring our gear into Malcom’s car we headed for Frampton, seeing a
small party of Golden Plover before we reached Stamford.
We arrived at Frampton at
around 10:20 and drove to the car park close to the sea wall. Four Swallow flew over as we were getting the
gear out of the car and we then scanned the marsh to the east. On two occasions there was significant
disturbance when virtually all the birds took to flight but we were unable to
locate anything that might have caused the panic. It was after the second of these I noticed
several Little Stints running in the grass close to the edge of one of the
pools. They weren’t easy to count as they
were constantly running in and out of the grass and then they flew across a
strip of water, when we were able to count nine. However, we then realised that some had not
flown and were still in the original place and we eventually managed to count
thirteen. We had seen several small
parties of Brent Geese and twenty-one Pink-footed Geese flew over before
turning and heading back out to sea.
There were plenty of Wigeon and Ruff on the marsh and small numbers of
Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank, with a few Shoveler and a single
Pintail with another five flying over and three Yellow Wagtails were observed
in flight.
Pink-footed Geese
Brent Geese
We made our way gradually to
the sea wall and there was c.300 Brent Geese feeding on the saltmarsh. Looking back over the fresh marsh we found
the resident Whooper Swan, two Barnacle Geese, seven Avocet and a Spotted
Redshank flew over and I also counted sixteen Little Egrets.
As it was now approaching
lunchtime we went back to the main car park and after checking what had been
reported in the centre and having lunch we went to the 360 Hide. There was a small party of waders feeding
just to the east of the hide, that included several Ringed Plover, a couple of
Dunlin and six Little Stints. I had noticed
when checking the board in the centre that six Little Stints had been reported
this morning and assumed that they were probably different to those we had seen
earlier. As we scanned around the lagoon
I found a couple of Curlew Sandpiper amongst a party of feeding Dunlin. A Kestrel disturbed the waders on several
occasions but some of the small party just outside kept returning to the same
area, allowing me to get a few photos.
Whooper Swan
Juvenile Ringed Plover
Juvenile Ringed Plover
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stint
Juvenile Little Stints
Juvenile Dunlin
After a while we returned to
the car park and I nipped into the centre again to see if there was anything
new been reported and found that a Merlin had been seen early this morning and
a Pectoral Sandpiper from the northeast sea wall. When I got back to the car I mentioned them
to Malcolm and Roger and a lady said she had seen the Merlin and possibly the
Pectoral Sandpiper but wasn’t sure as she couldn’t rule out Ruff on the views
she had.
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Based on the information from
the lady we decided we would go to the Nene Washes at Eldernell and hopefully
find some Cranes. It didn’t take too
long to get to Eldernell and we arrived at around 14:50. We didn’t see any
Cranes but we did have a Marsh Harrier, three Buzzard and at least seven
Kestrels and at least seventeen Swallows that appeared to be passing through.
We eventually headed back to
Rutland Water when we ran into some heavy rain and after getting out gear out
of Malcolm’s car we headed off home after a good day’s birding.
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