Frampton Marsh and Freiston Shore recent sightings, 4 - 10 July 2014

I know that the recent sightings runs from Friday to Thursday but hope you don't mind me sneak peaking a sighting from today in, especially if you use this blog to plan your weekend visits. A lesser yellowlegs was found on the reserve this morning and to celebrate I have tweaked the blog to provide a print out and keep 'Sightings Map' to bring with you on a visit :)

We'll start with a couple of what are probably the worst pictures of said wader ever, but at least you know roughly what to look for. Much better pictures of what they look like at this time of year can be found here, here and here.

 
Lesser yellowlegs

 
Lesser yellowlegs

And so to my jolly clever blog tweaking idea that I eluded to above....

 
Sightings map 4 - 10 July 2014

As we can't be on the reserve all the time to help locate bits and bobs, I thought I'd trial this reserve map to help you locate some of the more interesting species over the week. Many of you visit outside hours and aren't sure where to look for some of the target species. of course, if you do visit whilst the visitor centre is open, it is always a good idea to pop in to check the latest sightings and locations.

So in chronological order....

1. Lesser yellowlegs - it seems to favour these very shallow pools and hardly moved from them all day, aside from a brief jaunt to the other side of the old car park. Though viewable from the car park, this area is best viewed using the height of the sea bank. Also keep an eye out for garganey too.

2. Glossy ibis -  A pretty mobile bird but these are the best places to look for it.

3. Bittern - This second for the reserve has been EXTREMELY elusive as it is in a dense patch of reed. Patience from the Footpath Bench is your best bet.

4. Green sandpiper - We've had a peak count of 26 this week (9 July) including a single flock of 22. Scanning the circled ditches and North end of the Reedbed is your best bet to see them.  

5. Turtle doves - Still lots of inquiries for these stunners. Scan the hedgerows and check the yard as you drive to/from the reserve.

6. WADERS - These patches are holding the most waders at the moment, including black (1,000) and bar-tailed (70) godwits, spotted redshanks (four), greenshanks (four), common sandpipers (two), ruff (20+),  and dunlins (20+).

So how's that? Useful? Confusing? Pointless? Please do let me know if this is useful for you and if you want me to add anything. Took a while to set up but is now easily tweakable each week :)

That's the concise version done so now onto the ramble.

With the glossy ibis now being a welcome part of the regularly observed birds, it takes second fiddle as bird of the week goes to an incredibly elusive bittern, only the second for the reserve. First seen flying from the reedbed and into the dense reed in 'The Paddock' that runs along the public footpath, it has only been seen by the most patient of hopefuls since the initial find on 7 July. An early start or a lot of luck are needed to get this one.

The glossy ibis has been mobile around the reserve and also incredibly showy. The cows are doing a great job of keeping the grass down and the ibis has been pretty comfortable feeding out in the open and showing off it's fantastic 'glossy' sheen in the sun which Ian has captured fantastically below.

 
Glossy ibis - Ian Ellis

Our reed bed habitat management must be spot on as it wasn't just the bittern that it managed to pull in this week. A young Water Rail was seen on 6 and 9 July which is interesting as no 'squealing' adults were heard on any of our surveys. 

An indication that raptor number and variety will increase from now on was highlighted by the first juvenile marsh harrier of the year on 10 July, which showed it's inexperience by cruising over the grassland. Cue a multitude of lapwings, redshanks, avocets, common terns and black-headed gulls all politely asking it to move on. A hobby over five minutes later and a peregrine two days before remind us to keep looking up.

Although it's late in the season it's been fantastic to see so many young chicks around. Both lapwings and redshanks hatched young out this week and some teeny little ringed plover young were charging around on South Scrape. Several fledged little ringed and ringed plovers have been on the scrapes and grassland, joining up with this years avocets, redshanks and lapwings. It's not been a bad year at all for our breeding waders :D

 
Lapwing chick - Alan Crofts 

As far as non-resident waders go, passage is now in full flow with black-tailed godwits being the most abundant of them all by some way. This movement was illustrated wonderfully on 6 July with 150 being on site at 07:00. Upon returning later that afternoon the original observer counted over 1,000 with more coming in! A few colour rings were read at distance and submitted, adding to the fantastic data record we have for this species. The oldest of the lot was one first rung in 1998 and another interesting record involves a bird that has not been recorded in this country since it was first caught in The Wash in 2002, spending the following 12 years floating around France, Spain and Holland.

Most of the godwits prefer the grassland to the north of the Old Car park (check the map above) but they can also be seen from the comfort of our Visitor Centre along with some pretty scruffy looking ruffs. The males are starting to moult and are ditching their elegant plumes for something more practical for the winter. While the ruffs are dotted all over the place, spotted redshanks and greenshanks are a little more predictable and a bit of effort scanning the 6 circles will reward you with both.

A single first summer little gull has remained faithful to its patch south of the Old Car Park, while this must be the first week of many that we haven't had any mediterranean gull records. A non-breeding sandwich tern on 6 July made up for their absence though.

 
Sandwich tern - Ian Ellis

Turtle doves have been very vocal this last week and our first juveniles have been seen feeding. Could the adults be trying for a second brood? Fingers crossed. 

Turtle dove - adult feeding in foreground with juvenile behind.

As well as the young turtle doves and waders, lots of our smaller breeders are emerging with young reed warblers, sedge warblers and reed buntings flitting around the footpaths.

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Well that's all from me this week. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and if you can't wait 7 days to know what's going on here, keep your finger on the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves pulse by following us on Twitter and giving us a ‘like’ on Facebook.