David, Malcolm Roger and I had planned to go to Gibraltar Point today
hoping that a juvenile Red-footed Falcon present for the last two days would
still be there. We left David’s a little
after 06:00 and I drove towards Stanford and then onto Boston and Skegness
arriving a Gibraltar Point by 08:25. We hadn’t seen a great deal on route with
a Red Kite just after passing through Glaston in Rutland being the best.
We were surprised to see so few cars in the car park and were unsure
where the West Dunes were, which is where the bird had been feeding but a site
map cleared that up and they were right next to the car park.
There was a distant Common Kestrel over the salt marsh and a small party
of Common House Martins over the car park as well as a few Barn Swallows, but
they disappeared just before we set off along a track along the seaward side of
the dunes. We weren’t exactly sure where
the bird had been feeding and as we walked along the track when suddenly it
appeared in flight to our left and perched in the top of a dead tree. It remained briefly before taking to flight
again and landing in another tree quite close to the road. I took a few photos of it before it flew
again and landed in a different tree. We
felt we might see it better from in the dunes but when Malcolm and I went into
the dunes we found it was on the other side of the road and so I went to the
road where David and Roger joined me. It
flew another couple of times before perching again when I was able to get a few
good shots before it flew over again.
Malcolm had now joined us, and we found it again hovering over the dunes
before it flew out of sight only to return a few minutes later and land in the
trees again. When it flew again we lost
it and it wasn't seen again for quite some time.
Juvenile Red-footed Falcon
Juvenile Red-footed Falcon
Juvenile Red-footed Falcon
Juvenile Red-footed Falcon
Juvenile Red-footed Falcon
With the falcon disappearing I followed another birder along the path
leading to Sykes Farm and he alerted me to a Spotted Flycatcher. David and Roger then came into the area and
had brief views of the flycatcher and when Malcolm arrived David had located it
again in a tree further along the path.
We continued down the path and David who had heard Eurasian Tree Sparrow
and Eurasian Siskin earlier heard a Siskin calling again but all we could find
were a group of European Goldfinch.
There was a Great Spotted Woodpecker in a tree to our left and as I
walked past the farm building and further along the path I flushed a European
Green Woodpecker. We then walked back
along the track when Malcolm found a Willow Warbler and I found a single
Eurasian Siskin.
We continued along the track to the hide overlooking Jackson’s Marsh,
seeing another Great Spotted Woodpecker as we did so. From the hide there were ten Eurasian
Spoonbills, a Little Egret, nine Pied Avocets and a Eurasian Curlew. A Red Fox was also observed, which did cause
some disturbance as it moved onto the meadow and disappeared into the hedgerow.
Ten Eurasian Spoonbills
Eurasian Spoonbills feeding
Red Fox
Eurasian Curlew
As we left the hide David and Malcolm had gone on ahead and had stopped
and were observing a flock of birds in a tree.
I glanced through the bins and identified some European Goldfinches but
when we reached David and Malcolm they had found a Eurasian Tree Sparrow amongst
the finches.
We continued onto the first hide overlooking Tennyson’s Marsh and found
there were a good number of birds on the marsh.
There was a party of c.340 Black-tailed Godwit to the left of the hide
and fourteen Common Shelduck just beyond these.
Roger found a Common Snipe on the edge of the reeds that ran away from
the hide and further away there was another flock of roosting waders. Most were Common Redshank, of which there
were forty-one, but we also found a single Spotted Redshank and five Common
Greenshank and there were another fifteen Pied Avocets.
We visited the second hide on Tennyson’s Marsh, but it was quite full,
although we did find another two Common Greenshank before we went over the road
to Mere Hide. A Whinchat had been
reported from the hide and we soon found it in the scrub along the eastern edge
of the mere. There was a single Tufted
Duck amongst the more numerous Northern Shoveler, Mallard and Eurasian Teal on
The Mere and there was also a Little Grebe and a Common Snipe flew over.
As we walked back towards the centre other birders informed us that the
falcon had not been seen since early morning.
A visit to the information centre was disappointing, although whilst
there we saw a mass of waders over The Wash, probably numbering in the tens of
thousands and we considered most were certainly Red Knot.
Our plan was to go to Freiston Shore next where a Western Cattle Egret had been present for a while and had been reported earlier today.
We arrived at Freiston just before 12:30 and had our lunch, seeing a
Eurasian Tree Sparrow before going down the path towards the sea wall. As we approached the hide we could see a
large concentration of waders through the hedge and went into the hide to look
but found that they were all Common Redshanks, except for two Dunlin. Another group of waders, again mainly Common
Redshanks, included eight Eurasian Oystercatcher, a Pied Avocet and sixteen
Ruddy Turnstone.
A little further along the path was some steps leading to a viewing area
looking south over the fields where there were several groups of cattle. We scanned through the cattle but couldn’t
locate the Cattle Egret and found just a couple of Common Kestrel. David and Malcolm then went on to the
seawall, whilst Roger and I remained, trying to ensure a third falcon was just
a Common Kestrel. The bird was perched
on a post some distance away and the light wasn’t helping in identifying
it. It did fly between post on to
occasions when it recalled a Common Kestrel.
We still weren’t one hundred percent certain when the phone went, and it
was David saying they had found the Cattle Egret.
When we joined David and Malcolm there were also two Little Egrets and
after an altercation between one of them and the Cattle Egret, the Cattle Egret
had all but disappeared. I moved my
position slightly and was able to see it a little better when I could see the
thicker shorter yellow bill confirming its identification. We could now see all the waders on the lagoon
better and there must have been around six hundred Common Redshanks, but the
only addition was a single Black-tailed Godwit.
David then went back to see if the falcon was still on the post and when
I joined him he said he still wasn’t certain but still suspected that it was a
Common Kestrel. I went and looked and
whilst doing so two Western Yellow Wagtails flew over calling and I alerted
David. He joined me and after a minute
or so, it or another flew over again, which Roger also saw. Roger and I then saw the falcon fly again
between posts and both agreed it was just a Common Kestrel.
Our final site was to be Frampton Marsh and as we left Freiston we had a
Common Kestrel hunting alongside the road and we arrived at Frampton Marsh
about thirty minutes later at 14:30.
David went into the centre to check what had been seen and came out
saying that a Little Stint and the Long-billed Dowitcher had been seen from the
seawall car park and the seawall but that the Black-necked Grebe hadn’t been
reported and so we drove to the seawall car park.
We had seen a Common Kestrel as we drove along the road and on reaching
the car park we looked for the Long-billed Dowitcher and the Little Stint. David found three Barnacle Geese with a group
of Canada Geese and there were a few Black-tailed Godwits and Common Snipe and two
Pied Avocet, two European Golden Plover and a Dunlin on the marsh close to the
road but there was no sign of either of the target birds.
We walked along the path and up to the seawall and another birder who had
seen the dowitcher earlier pointed out one of the areas it had been frequenting
recently. We walked along the seawall to
a bench and looked back into its favoured channel. David and Malcolm pointed out two birds in
the channel but when I got the scope on them they were both Common Snipe. There were two Little Egrets on the fresh
marsh and another on the saltmarsh and there were six Little Grebes in the pool
directly in front of the wall. As I
scanned the edge of this pool I found four Spotted Redshanks with three
Black-tailed Godwits roosting and David said he and Malcolm had a bird in the
channel they were pretty sure wasn’t a snipe.
I got the scope on the bird, but it was partially hidden but eventually
gave good enough views to confirm that it was the Long-billed Dowitcher.
I then picked up a Western Marsh Harrier and a Eurasian Curlew over the
saltmarsh and there was a Common Kestrel hovering further along the
seawall. As we walked back along the
wall two Western Yellow Wagtails flew over and this time Malcolm connected.
The Little Stint had been seen yesterday from the 360 Hide and so we
headed of in that direction. We stopped
when we reached the Reedbed Marsh junction to view a swan, which turned out to
be the long-staying Whooper Swan and as I continued scanning I found eleven
Northern Pintail and my only Ruff of the day.
The visit to the 360 Hide just produced a couple of Pied Avocet and so we
went bck to view the Reedbed Marsh but other than several Black-tailed Godwits,
a Dunlin, three Common Snipe and a Common Redshank there wasn’t much else and
we walked back to the car, seeing three Egyptian Geese to the south.
The Black-necked Grebe had been reported on BirdGuides and so we drove
around to the reservoir to look for it.
As we scanned Malcolm thought he might have it and walked further along
the grass bank to get a better look but whilst he was doing this David found it
with several Little Grebes in the northeast corner. I then found a Green Sandpiper and Roger
found a Common Scoter both on the southern edge, where there was also another
four Common Snipe.
Feeling pleased with our day’s birding, where I recorded seventy-eight species with one, the Red-footed Falcon, being a year-tick.
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