Frampton Marsh and Freiston Shore recent sightings - New Year 2016

The first sightings blog of the year kicks off with a bit of a **NEWS FLASH** While not exceedingly rare as individuals, there was a group of 32 European white-fronted geese on Marsh Farm today. A quick look on BirdGuides shows this to be the largest county count in 4 years. 

What was interesting to note was eight out of the 32 were juveniles, a much better ratio to adults than our poor dark-bellied brent geese. They looked to be feeding pretty happily with a group of brents and they were seen to head off to roost together so fingers crossed they'll be around this weekend. There were also three white fronts at Freiston too so they could easily move between the two reserves.

Here are the daily sightings maps from the week. If you would like more daily updates from the reserve then click on our Twitter link below. 

Repeat offenders are.....

• the scaup and avocet on the reedbed,
• spotted redshank on Roads Farm,
• corn bunting round the back of the reedbed,
• water rail at Roads Farm double gates,
• a plethora of raptors on the saltmarsh and across the reserve,
• roosting whooper swans on the reedbed,
• hundreds of fieldfare at the reserve entrance
• loads of birds at the feeders and even more birds across the whole reserve.

Our water levels are pretty spot on and this is reflected in the sheer mass of birds on site. A WeBS count next weekend will allow us to see if we've improved on the 18,000 of last month and my money's on a big fat yes. The reserve is absolutely brimming with birds, far too many to be enjoyed in a morning or afternoon. Make sure you check the forecast before you come, bring a packed lunch and enjoy a full day, unfortunately you still won't have enough time to see everything :)

That's all from us 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. Alternatively if you enjoy taking pictures and have a Flickr account then please join our group and share your images with everyone. If you are thinking of paying a visit from near or far please do check out the tide times which can make a big difference to both numbers and variety of birds seen on the day.