Well it’s been a very interesting weekend at Frampton Marsh! Yesterday I arrived to be greeted by some escapee cows. Apparently they had gone for a lovely walk around the reserve and thought it was about time they checked out the birds from the 360 hide! Luckily they didn’t get in and we managed to round them up ready for the grazier to bring them back to the saltmarsh. We have very friendly cows on the reserve but sometimes I swear they look at me as if to say ‘no, actually I’m quite comfortable here thanks...’ and are quite uninterested in my presence.
Drama over, we opened up the visitor centre. The pectoral sandpiper is still about, as was the spoonbill yesterday. At about lunch time there was suddenly a lot of excited voices. A red-necked phalarope had just landed in the pool just in front of the visitor centre. It was such a great view of the bird as it span around and bobbed up and down for a bit before flying off to the scrapes.
Today there has been even more excitement as a spotted crake was seen this morning. It hasn’t been seen since, but hopefully it will be out again this evening. With all these wonderful birds and the beautiful weather it’s been pretty busy, lots of people have been enjoying picnics and having a nice wander around.
I wonder what we’ll get on the reserve tomorrow!
It’s turned into a lovely afternoon here and there’s lots of birds to see out on the reserve. Our pectoral sandpiper has stuck around since Monday and everyone’s getting great views. In Simon’s absence I’m afraid I better do the sightings blog today!
Here goes:
1 pectoral sandpiper1 spoonbill1 wood sandpiper2 kingfisher7 green sandpiper13 snipeCommon sandpipersGreenshank 20 Ruff
The weekend weather forecast is looking good with sunny intervals and Sunday is set to be pretty warm so get your sunglasses out and head down to Frampton Marsh to get great views of wildlife!
It’s been great on the reserve this week with lots of birds to see including one to add to my life list! The pectoral sandpiper arrived on Monday morning to everyone’s excitement and it’s still here today! Pectoral sandpipers are scarce passage migrants from America and Siberia and can be identified from their brown breastband and white belly (check out the drawing by Mike Langman, rspb-images.com).
I say this but I’m still doubtful as to whether I’d pick one out if I didn’t know it was there. To make it harder we’ve also had common sandpipers, green sandpipers and wood sandpipers! Here’s my best effort at separating them out: common sandpipers are comparatively stocky looking birds with a white shoulder patch and their white belly is very defined against the brown upperparts; green sandpipers are more elegant birds and as the name suggests, are a greeny colour on top and wood sandpipers are spotty with a cream eye stripe.
We have also had two kingfishers reported this morning which I was mega excited about (if not a little annoyed) as I have never seen a kingfisher before. I always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or just looking the wrong way! A golden plover was reported this afternoon and sure enough when we looked out, there it was on the reedbed, beautiful in its breeding plumage.
We had a bit of drama as I arrived at the visitor centre this afternoon. A swallow had got in and kept hitting up against the windows as it attempted to get out. I decided to be brave and attempt to grab it and get it outside. Amazingly I did manage this; I think I was almost as scared and relieved as the swallow was as I carried it out to the front of the centre. I’d never held a bird in my hands before, it’s little heart beating away, it felt so fragile and it’s eyes were wide open in fear. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t recover but sure enough after a few minutes it perked itself up and flew away.
With loads of wildlife to see on the reserve it’s definitely worth a visit! To find out more about the wildlife, why not come on one of our guided walks? The next one is tomorrow when we will be finding out about dragonflies, butterflies and mini-beasts. Check out our events listings on our website for further information.
Hello,
we have had another great day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. Visitors have enjoyed the weather and great views of our little owl family. There have been lots of other wildlife on offer, including:
Spoonbill 1
Green sandpiper 2
Common sandpiper 1
Ruff 5
Hobby 1
Marsh harrier 2
A singing quail
2 watervoles
and hundreds of tiny toadlets.
Graham, the warden has spent the day working hard at RSPB Freiston Shore (our sister reserve, just down the road). On the reservoir, with the Temminck's stint was:
Dunlin 4
A single knot, still looking good in it's summer plumage
black-tailed godwit 17
and 4 sandwich terns.
It looks like it could be a nice weekend, so why not make a day of visiting both reserves.
Tomorrow's high tide is - 1138 at a height of 6m
Sunday's high tide is - 1232 at a height of 5.6m
Cheers,
Simon.
Our new Wildlife Explorer backpacks are up and raring to go! All we need now is for you to come and test them out. Bug hunts, binoculars and loads of fun family activities are included in the packs and you can take them out for as long as you like during the day.
They look so cool that I think I’m going to go try one out soon! The photo above is of a Sawyer longhorn beetle by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com), beetles are amazing creatures, make sure you keep an eye out for them as you explore.
Now, I hardly ever check the weather forecast, (it’s always wrong!) but I’ve made an exception today and I’m pleased to tell you that there is no rain forecast for the weekend. It’s supposed to be quite warm with sunny intervals. So get out there! Quick! While it’s not raining.....
And if it does rain, put your wellies on and if you’re lucky you might even get given one of our very flattering ‘love nature’ ponchos.
It’s been pretty busy on the reserve lately; last week I was very busy planting thousands of reeds in the reedbed outside the visitor centre (with a little help from our amazing volunteers, the RSPB marketing team and some volunteers from the environment agency). The reedbed is developing quite quickly and hopefully all the little reeds we planted will grow up to provide habitats for lots of wildlife including water voles and bittern (awesome birds, check them out here).
At the weekend I was lucky enough to visit Bempton Cliffs. Armed with my brand new (second hand) binoculars and a pack-a-mac I headed out to the cliffs. It was SO cool, there were puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbill and kittiwakes. Frampton Marsh will always be my favourite reserve but it’s great to see other sites and birds I don’t normally see.
I’ve just had an update on what’s out and about back here at Frampton Marsh today. We’ve got lots of toadlets wandering around, the water voles have been out and make sure you watch where you step as there’s devils coach-horse beetles on the paths!
I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions from families who have tried out the wildlife explorer backpacks, I hope you have loads of fun on your adventures and I hope to see you all soon.