David, Malcolm, Roger and I were off to Frampton Marsh today and after I
picked David up, we headed for Egleton to meet Malcolm and Roger in the car
park at the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water.
We transferred our gear to Malcom’s car and he then drove to Frampton,
seeing a Common Kestrel just after turning onto the A606 at Rutland Water. We hadn’t seen anything else of note as we
turned off the A16 at Kirton and into Frampton village. There was a road closer and so we had to take
a couple of diversions to get to the RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh, seeing a
Eurasian Jay before we eventually reached the reserve.
On arrival we headed straight for the car park at the seawall, where we
were hoping to find a Hen Harrier and the Long-billed Dowitcher. As we were getting our gear on, we heard a
Cetti’s Warbler calling quite close but as usual it remained out of sight. There was a lot of activity with large
numbers of Northern Lapwing in flight and smaller numbers of European Golden
Plover and eight Dunlin and a large flock of c.300 Black-tailed Godwit rose off
the marsh in front of the 360 Hide. We
couldn’t find the cause of all the disturbance and went up onto one of the
mounds to view the marsh where there were plenty of birds, which were mainly
wildfowl but only few waders, with just Northern Lapwing, several Eurasian
Curlew and Common Redshank and a Spotted Redshank being found.
We then focussed on the marsh to the south and Roger found a bird of prey
on a fence near a gate, which turned out to be a female Merlin. David then found a Barnacle Goose amongst a
flock of Canada Geese and then a larger flock closer to the centre, where there
was also a small number of Pink-footed Geese.
With no sign of the dowitcher we went up onto the seawall to get an elevated
view of the marsh. There was a
considerable number of Brent Geese on both the fresh and salt marshes and we
saw the single Spotted Redshank on several occasions but there was still no
sign of the dowitcher. We could now see
that the distant flock of Barnacle Geese contained thirty-seven birds and that
there was another three amongst the closer flock of Canada Geese. There were three Little Egrets scattered
around the fresh marsh and two Little Grebes on a nearby flash. I had a Common Snipe fly over and David found
a distant Western Marsh Harrier, which I managed to miss. He then announced that he had another
harrier, which he thought was a ring-tailed.
He gave directions and I got on it straight away and followed it as it
flew towards the seawall before disappearing behind it and I was happy it was a
ring-tailed Hen Harrier. Malcolm had
gone on it just before is disappeared but Roger had failed to see it and so we
decided to walk to the raptor watchpoint hoping we might get a second view.
Brent Goose
Brent Geese
As we walked out to the watchpoint we saw very little and on reaching the
watchpoint Malcolm sat on the bench, whilst David, Roger and I stayed on the
top of the seawall. There were four
Little Egrets on the saltmarsh to the south and at one point the sky was full
of European Golden Plover, with 1000 plus birds being involved. There was a Common Buzzard soaring to the
south and four Common Shelduck in flight was the only sighting during the
visit.
One of the three Barnacle Geese
David and Roger then joined Malcolm on the bench after which I saw a
couple of Western Marsh Harriers, more Eurasian Curlew and Common Redshank and
three distant Egyptian Geese. David and
Malcolm had another brief view of the Hen Harrier but again Roger failed to
connect but generally it was very quiet.
David then joined me on the seawall and pointed out a Grey Plover on one
of the nearer pools before we made our way back to the car.
As we walked back, there were more Pink-footed Geese dropping onto the
marsh and when we got back to the steps leading from the seawall David went
down and Malcolm, Roger and I stayed having another look over the marsh. Other than six distant Northern Pintail and
another Western Marsh Harrier we didn’t see anything else and eventually we
went down to join David who was looking over the marsh, with two other birders. It was clear as we got closer to them that
they were all looking at something, which turned out to be the Long-billed
Dowitcher. One of the other birders was
a female member of staff at Titchwell and she had seen the dowitcher fly in and
alerted David and the other birder. We
had a brief, but a good view, of the bird before it turned when we had a
back-on view as it roosted.
After some lunch we had some discussion as to whether or not to go for an
eclipse drake Ring-necked Duck at an old airfield near Woodhall Spa, but after
finding out it was a locked Lincolnshire reserve and a combination was needed,
we headed back to Rutland Water.
There was a Western Marsh Harrier over the fields just after leaving
Frampton Marsh, a Common Kestrel as we approached Spalding and a Red Kite just
after getting back into Rutland.
As we approached the reservoir we ran into some heavy rain and on
arriving in the Egleton car park spent almost an hour just sitting in the car,
waiting for the rain to abate. When it
finally stopped, we went down to the centre, where we found Ricky, who had been
to the northern lagoons and hadn’t see much of note. We therefore decided to stay in the centre,
particularly as the weather still looked rather unpredictable. There were five Great Egret and a Little
Egret on the lagoon and I counted twenty Northern Shoveler and there were also
two Northern Pintail and a single Common Goldeneye. There were three Common Goldeneye and a
Little Grebe visible on Lagoon Two, but the highlight turned out to be a nice
male Eurasian Sparrowhawk. It was
perched on a post towards Harrier Hide and initially we were unsure of its
identity as it was facing us, revealing mainly its pale pinkish-orange breast
and whiter lower belly. In fact, when
David and I first found it we thought it might be a Western Barn Owl as it
looked so pale but on a closer inspection we dispensed of that idea as we
realised it was a raptor and identified it as a Eurasian Sparrowhawk.
