There was a Stilt Sandpiper at Frampton Marsh yesterday and so David,
Malcolm, Roger and I decided we should go.
I picked David up just before 06:30 and we headed for the Egleton car
park at Rutland Water where we were meeting Malcolm and Roger. There was a Common Buzzard on a telegraph
pole as we left Great Glen and a Green Woodpecker was observed in flight on the
opposite side of the road. When we
arrived in the Egleton car park a Common Chiffchaff was heard singing.
We didn’t see a great deal else before we reached the car park at
Frampton Marsh just before 08:30. A Common Greenshank and a Western Yellow
Wagtail flew over before we walked to the path to view the Reedbed Marsh. There hadn’t been any news of the Stilt
Sandpiper and we suspected that it might have gone. There was a large number of hirundine resting
on some of the islands, which were mainly Sand Martin but also with a good
number of Barn Swallow, but I only saw a couple of Common House Martins. As we continued to scan Malcolm noticed a
group of birders looking over the North Scrape, which is where the sandpiper
had been yesterday, and we set off hoping that they were watching it.
When we joined the other birders the Stilt Sandpiper was showing nicely,
although the light wasn’t perfect. It
was an adult in moult that was still showing a good deal of summer plumage
including the barring on the underparts.
We watched it feeding for a good thirty minutes before it and the other
waders took to flight. Some Black-tailed
Godwits and Dunlin returned but the sandpiper appeared to come down on the
Reedbed Marsh. Other waders alongside
the sandpiper were two Pied Avocets, a small number of Black-tailed Godwits,
seven Ruff, seventeen Dunlin, three Common Snipe and a Common Sandpiper.
Stilt Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Having seen the sandpiper well we decided we would continue along the
path to the seawall and complete the circuit.
As we walked along the track we had a party of six Western Yellow
Wagtails that were feeding amongst some cattle.
From the top of the bank we scanned the marsh and found two Ruff and a
Little Ringed Plover but otherwise it was rather quiet.
As we continued around towards the seawall car park we found a single
European Golden Plover, four more Common Snipe and seven Little Egrets and
Malcolm found a single winter plumaged Spotted Redshank. When we reached the steps down to the car
park we found two Northern Wheatears on the seawall and two Common Kestrel over
the saltmarsh, where there was also a Eurasian Curlew. A juvenile Western Marsh Harrier then flew
over and caused some disturbance before it continued over the saltmarsh.
Northern Wheaters
As we made our way along the path towards the centre we saw very little
and other birders were indicating that the Stilt Sandpiper hadn’t been seen
since it had flown off this morning. As
we approached the path towards the track to the 360 Hide there was a small
group of Black-tailed Godwits with a small wader feeding between the hide and
the path. The light wasn’t brilliant,
but the smaller wader looked as though it might be the Stilt Sandpiper, but we
were unable to see any barring on the underparts. Its behaviours and silhouette however looked good,
but it then walked out of sight. I went
back along the path where I could see it in the corner of the marsh and was
even more convinced that it was the Stilt Sandpiper as the upperparts looked convincing,
but I was still unable to make out any barring.
It and the godwits suddenly took to flight and I watched as it appeared
to come down on the North Marsh.
Common Snipe alongside the path
We continued along the path and alerted a few birders that we thought it
was back on the North Scrape, but a further scan of the Reedbed Marsh produced
nothing of note except the resident Whooper Swan and after checking in the
centre we went to the car park for some lunch.
There were far fewer waders present that can normally be expected but we
had seen a European Golden Plover, a Common Ringed Plover, a Little Ringed
Plover, a Eurasian Curlew, seventy-eight Black-tailed Godwits, five Ruff, the
Stilt Sandpiper, seventeen Dunlin, eight Common Snipe, a Common Sandpiper,
three Common Redshank, a Spotted Redshank and a Common Greenshank.
After we had finished our lunch we decided to head back to Rutland Water
and when we were half-way back, Ken, who we had seen at Frampton, called to say
there was a report of a Red-necked Phalarope but having seen the one at Rutland
Water earlier this month we decided to continue and not go back.
With several reports of the Purple Heron we headed for the unnamed road
in the north arm to view the fishponds.
David went down to the point, whilst Malcolm, Roger and I went to the water
trough to view the fishponds. Malcolm got
to the trough first and when I approached he said he could see something but
suspect it wouldn’t be the heron, although it turned out that it was. It was perched on a branch quite close to the
water giving unobscured views, although it was rather distant.
Record shot of the juvenile Purple Heron
It dropped down into the water to feed and we watched it for quite some
time and in fact it was still there when we left for the Egleton car park. There were twenty-nine Little Grebes in the
fishponds and four Little Egrets were roosting in the bushes. Three Green Sandpipers were feeding in the
corner of the bund that crosses the fishponds and a Yellow-legged Gull was on
the bund separating the North Arm from the fishponds. When we were back on the road we had a nice
Western Yellow Wagtail perched on a stump and we heard a Goldcrest and a
Eurasian Nuthatch.
We went into the centre and up to the viewing area to view Lagoon One
where we found a Great Egret at the back of the lagoon and there were a couple
of Little Egrets feeding. Roger picked
up a juvenile Western Marsh Harrier over Lagoon Two that flew towards us before
drifting off to the far side of the lagoon.
As we scanned around we found a Dunlin and a Common Snipe on the island
and then Malcolm found a Garganey on one of the nearer islands. We could see at least ten Common Terns over
South Arm Three but there was no sign of the reported Black Tern. David then found a Common Swift over Lax Hill
and Malcolm found four Garganey near where we had seen the first. David then found two Northern Pintail with
two Eurasian Wigeon near the back of the lagoon and after some disturbance we
picked up a falcon, which turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon.
There had been a report of a European Pied Flycatcher in Victoria Park
earlier and with a WhatsApp message from Roger Brett indicated that it was still
there, and so David and I decided we would go.
After parking we walked over to the park and found Andy and Roger still
there. They had only seen the bird twice
and then only briefly. We spent a good forty minutes on site but there wasn’t
any sign, although Andy Howes saw it just after we had left. Whilst there we did see a couple of Common
Chiffchaff and a Spotted Flycatcher.
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