A brief and quick one from me this week with lots of underlined clicky blue bits for you to look at. Have been super busy on the reserve tweaking water levels and making sure we're where we want to be for the next 3 months. Getting it wrong now with birds starting to nest will set the tone for the whole season but fortunately all is looking exceptionally good with birds absolutely everywhere!!
We'll start with our sightings map as most our highlights from this week are on there.
1 and 4. Before we get into this, a quick caveat, we/I don't actually know if these are ashy-headed wagtail (15th - 17th) or blue-headed wagtail (12th - 14th) and there's a good chance we may never know aka 'not proven' by those that decide these things. The yellow wagtail/'flava' complex is, as a Spurn obsessed Scot recently told me, a minefield. I have neither the time nor knowledge to even start to begin telling you about the complexities involved in this fascinating species but if you have a couple of hours to spare and want a headache, have a look here, here, here and finally here. Now you are as confused as I am, you're welcome :) There will no doubt be discussions about these birds in time and won't bore you with them here but needless to say have been/are/will be gorgeous looking birds so worth coming to see them, enjoying them and making your own mind up. Pictures of the ashy-headed wagtail here and here and some of our blue-headed type bird from the start of the week here and here. Have linked to actual 'tweets' for the images so those that want to can follow discussions. If this isn't working please let me know and I'll just link to pictures in the future. Over the week we have had dozens of yellow wagtails and the same again of white wagtails so as frustrating as they can be, they are also super gorgeous so go and find them and enjoy.
2. This chap is a little more clear cut as it's a known and returning bird. The main brent goose flock moves around the reserve so can be distant at times but on the 16th it was only about 50 metres from the old car park and stood out like a sore thumb! There has also been a cracking pale-bellied brent goose with the group too and it was possible to get brant, pale and dark bellied in the same view on Thursday.
3. This immature bird (black in the wings all pale bill) dropped in from on high on the morning of the 15th. It was back again the next day but not seen on the 17th so may not be around for the weekend but it wouldn't surprise me if it did turn up and put on a show.
4 (mentioned above in 1)
5. Corn buntings are a good bird to look for as they are on the fringes of the reserve, getting you out and walking to places you may not usually visit and who knows what you might find when you do go to see them...?
6. The first sedge warbler of the year turned up on the 13th and has been in the same spot since. With whitethroat also making Frampton landfall this week (14th) we are now filling up our warbler contingent. Reed warbler, garden warbler and lesser whitethroat are all to be added, could this be the weekend to do it? Ears pricked please everyone.
7. Our wintering spotted redshanks appear to have relocated from the saltmarsh to the fresh water habitats permanently. Their ghostly grey winter plumage is getting smoky as they make the transition into that glorious summer spotting.
8. If you are on the hunt for new arrivals or want to be the first person to get one of the warblers mentioned above then this is the route for you. We had a very nice acredula willow warbler on the cross bank this week, could you find something more unusual?
9. We have roughly 200 black-tailed godwits across the reserve and may are as close to perfect as you could wish for. The big groups are on middle scrape but you can easily bump into them anywhere on the reserve.
And a few more things to keep an eye out for at Frampton....
Have a look around the Marsh Farm reservoir for whimbrel, green sandpiper, swallow, house martin and sand martin.
Scan across the reedbed for Mediterranean gull on the islands, displaying great-crested grebes, an enormous mute swan nest and little ringed plover.
Grill the scrapes for colour ringed birds like avocet and black-tailed godwit to help us learn more of their movements, sift through the waders that come in on high tides (check the times below) and see if you can add to our 20 species recorded this month
And finally have a good nosey across the grassland for nesting lapwing (they seem to be everywhere) wheatears on the move and hopefully a snoozing garganey or two.
For those that fancy a trek over to Freiston highlights this week have been 2 drake and a duck garganey at the southern end, adult Mediterranean gull on the lagoon all week, common tern passing over head, whitethroat and blackcap in the hedgerows male and ringtail hen harriers over the saltmarsh and greenshank and drake scaup on the reservoir.
While those are the main bits to look for it is nearly impossible to have a finite list of highlights at this time of year. It is all happening,all of the time. Birds are coming and going, singing, displaying, nest building, feeding and mating. When spring is at it's peak, the reserve is the highlight so please make sure you enjoy it all when you come and see us.
Short and sweet there, hope you don't mind. Some great pictures coming in on our Flickr page so please check them out. Tide times could be make a good visit awesome this weekend so check those out and finally if you want up to date sightings then our twitter account is the place to go.
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. 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.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder