Roger arrived at my house just before 06:30 and after transferring his
gear into my car we picked Dave up and the headed for the Egleton car park to
pick Malcolm up before heading off to Frampton Marsh.
We hadn’t seen a great deal when we arrived at Frampton Marsh at around
08:20 and headed to the seawall car park.
We were a little surprised how cold it felt when we got out of the car,
which was mainly due to the fresh northwest wind. We scanned the marsh finding twenty European
Golden Plover and several Eurasian Oystercatcher, Pied Avocet; Common Ringed
Plover, Eurasian Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit; Ruff and Dunlin before going up
onto the seawall.
It felt even colder on the seawall and we dropped down below the top to
at least get some shelter from the wind.
We spent quite some time scanning the marsh, which was quiet until David
said what’s this. It turned out to be a
female Merlin but somehow, I managed to miss it as it flew by quite close to
us. I suspect I was looking too far out
and scanning behind the bird before it skipped over the seawall. The only other birds of note were two distant
Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel and three Sand Martin.
We eventually went back to the car and drove to the main car park and
going into the visitor's centre, where we saw a female Western Marsh Harrier,
before making our way around to the eastern edge of the reserve to look for
Corn Bunting. As we approached the
Reedbed Hide, two Barn Swallows flew over and we then spent a good thirty
minutes looking for a Corn Bunting without success, although a male Common
Kestrel provided a good photo opportunity.
Common Kestrel
Common Kestrel
After walking back to the car, we drove to the seawall car park again
with the intention of spending some time viewing the saltmarsh. As we started to walk to the seawall two
other birders made us aware that there were two Little Ringed Plover and a
Western Yellow Wagtail just a few yards the other way and so we went to look.
We soon found the two Little Ringed Plover and then the Western Yellow
Wagtail, which was a little further away but did get good views of both.
Little Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Having had good views we then made our way to the seawall but again saw
very little with three Common Buzzards being the highlight but as we scanned
the fresh marsh I found a single Spotted Redshank, which made the time on the
wall worthwhile.
Two Ruff provided a good photo opportunity from the car park and I found
a White Wagtail as we were about to leave.
Ruff
Ruff
White Wagtail
Brent Goose
It hadn’t been one of our most successful trips to Frampton, but we had
seen a good range of species before leaving and heading back to Rutland Water,
seeing three Common Kestrel close to Spalding.
On reaching Rutland Water we went to the unnamed road to view the North
Arm and a stop at Tim’s feeders produced a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Eurasian
Nuthatch and a Lesser Redpoll. I then
drove to the far end of the road, whilst the others walked and once we had got
back together we located a Eurasian Treecreeper.
Ken Chamberlain then came back from the spit and indicated that there was
very little, which was probably due to the number of fishing boats. As we stood talking a single Barnacle Goose
was observed in flight and Barn Swallow flew over the fishponds. Over Burley we had at least six Common
Buzzards and a single Northern Raven.
From the North Arm we went to the Egleton car park and then walked to the
northern Lagoons. As we approached
Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four a few birders entered the hide and so we decided
to go to Dunlin Hide. A Willow Warbler
had been reported earlier in the hedge running alongside the path and when
Malcolm said he had a warbler we were hoping it was the Willow Warbler. However, as we scanned the hedge a female Blackcap
appeared, and we assumed it was the bird he had seen.
On reaching the hide we found some other birders present but there was
still room for the four of us to get seated.
Malcolm soon found the Northern Wheatear on the west bank and there were
two Eurasian Oystercatcher on island ten, six Eurasian Curlew on island eight
and Common Redshank on islands seven and nine and a male Western Yellow Wagtail
was on island five.
Malcolm went to look for warblers between Shoveler and Bittern hides,
David went to Lapwing Hide to view the South Arm and Roger and I went into
Shoveler Hide to view Lagoon Three.
There were two Eurasian Oystercatcher just to the left of the hide and
Common Pochard on the lagoon and the second-summer Mediterranean Gull was still
present amongst the Black-headed Gulls.
With nothing else, Roger and I went to join David in Lapwing Hide hearing
a Cetti’s Warbler just after leaving the hide.
This was my first on site this year and there have been few records
since the ‘Blast from the East’.
When we joined David, he had already found the adult summer Black-necked
Grebe but hadn’t seen much else. As I
watched the grebe he announced he had a Greater Scaup and we eventually found a
male and a female. Roger then said he
thought he had one of the Great Northern Divers and when he described where it
was it was obvious why he wasn’t 100% sure.
We all managed to get on the bird eventually, which appeared to be just
of Teal Hide on the Lyndon Reserve and agreed with Roger that it was one of the
divers.
We met Malcom at the main path, but he hadn’t had any luck with either of
his two hoped species, Willow Warbler and Sedge Warbler. As we walked back to the car park I saw a
couple of Common Chiffchaffs as we approached the Badger Hide.
Whilst the day may not have included one of our best days at Frampton I
had recorded eighty-five species and despite there being no additions to the
year-lists, it had been a good day’s birding.
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