We've been a little slow letting you guys know about our wonderful Mediterranean visitor. A gorgeous female black-winged stilt was found at Frampton on Tuesday and is still present today.
We have a pretty good track record for this species with sightings in 4 of the last 5 years. Our management at Frampton, and at many of the RSPB's other wetland reserves, has an eye on the future of species affected by climate change. We are doing wonderful things down at Ham Wall on the Somerset levels, creating huge areas of ideal habitat for colonising herons and egrets, and it is the East Coast's turn to do the same. Many of the birds that breed in the Mediterranean wetlands are being pushed north to find suitable breeding habitat due to drying conditions further south. Our current and future management needs to take these potential colonists into account and so we create ideal conditions for them and, low and behold, we get the species we are trying to manage for. A flock of ten were seen at our Pulborough Brooks reserve in West Sussex at the start of the month with another 6 seen on a reserve further North. Coincidence? Maybe, but more likely hard work, effort and forward thinking, at least that's what it's taken up here.
We will post news out on our twitter feed (as it's a lot quicker, easier and more practical to do it that way) which is twitter.com/RSPBNorfolkLinc Click on that blue link (you don't have to be a registered member of Twitter to do so) and it will take you to our page where you can get daily updates of sightings on the reserve.
You'll also get to see videos like this
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder