Waders will be our headline subject for the next few months and will no doubt continue to increase in number and variety after a good showing during the 2nd week of July. A summary of what we've had and what you can see is all tied in nicely to the sightings map.
1. Well it can't all be about the waders and there'll always be room for these guys. One of the most asked for Frampton favourites, our turtle doves continue to delight and frustrate in equal measure. Some visitors enjoying point blank views with others not even getting a fly by.
2. A nice early July find was the Temminck's stint on the morning of the 16th. A good one to look for and enjoy this weekend.
3. Spotted redshank are knocking on the dozen door big time. Several counts of 11 have been taken during the week but who will be the first to go one better?
4. While they may well the most abundant wader on site now and will be until October at least I just can't get enough of them. We are now marching on towards 400 on site and they look splendid both on the ground and in their zebra patterned squadrons overhead.
5. We can hit big numbers of greenshank but those are later in the year and usually at Freiston - over 100 were seen at once in 2013 on the small reservoir. Currently there are about half a dozen spread around Frampton.
6. Still present and still incredibly tough to pick out. Have you found it yet?
7. We've had plenty of reports of singles and pairs on the scrapes and reedbed but the big numbers are to be found on the drying ditches of Marsh Farm.
8. The little stints have been hanging around with the Temminck's stint on Roads Farm. Little are much brighter than Temminck's and their rich rufous upperparts are distinctive even at range.
9. Last weeks grey winter plumaged curlew sandpiper has been replaced by three summer plumaged birds, though the red is dropping off them fast as they moult. All the food on the reserve providing the energy the birds need to undertake the transformation.
Our most intriguing bird of the week was the white-faced whistling duck (duck with a white face that whistles) on South Scrape. Usually found in South America or Africa, this is no doubt a fence jumper from a wildfowl collection somewhere. No matter what it's origins it's still a fine looking bird and one that was enjoyed by all over its two day stay.
White-faced whistling duck- Ian Ellis
Away from escaped tropical fare we settle nicely into wader territory. A good game to play at this time of year is how many red waders you can see on one day. Curlew sandpiper, knot, black-tailed godwit and bar-tailed godwit are the most obvious and I may eve let you squeeze in a bright little stint to up your tally. While a few are still looking top notch, most are well onto shedding their brighter feathers in return for their winter hues of grey and grey. The more scaly juveniles will be with us next month but try and get on to the adults while you can.
Curlew sandpiper - Brian Sellars
Knot (foreground) and black-tailed godwit - Ian Ellis
Freiston is now a good destination on high tides as passage birds will be looking for a rest as they start to head south. Waders will be your targets once again but look out for terns early doors or late pm as they leave or arrive to roost.
Sandwich terns - John Badley
Our regular kestrel is now getting very approachable for photographs and will no doubt be joined by some youngsters soon. The longer areas of grassed have been left to provide some variety of habitat and kestrels don't mind this at all due to the extra cover provided for small mammals. This one is ringed but the grass obscures the combination a little. If anyone does get the inscription, please pass it on and we'll try and track it down.
Kestrel - Jeremy Eyeons
Acrocephalus warblers (named for the acrobatical prowess among the vegetation of their reedy and marshy habitats) are out in force now with family parties flitting along ditches and next to path edges. While they look do look a little similar have a look at the two pictures below and see if you can find some differences that you would see in the field.
Reed warbler - sddigital
Sedge warbler - sddigital
Any luck? One of the best ways I find to separate them is by looking at the head. The sedge is much stripier with a pale eye-brow splitting a dark crown from a dark eye-stripe. Hopefully quite evident in these two excellent pictures.
As the days warm and the flowers burst forth with colour, our smaller residents follow suit. Loads are around at the minute, with dragonflies, butterflies, damselflies, darters, chasers, skimmers plus an abundance of wee beasties that I haven't even seen let alone know the names of. The Roesel's bush cricket is one of our more secretive species that hides in the longer grasses at the sheltered end of the reedbed. Calm warm mornings are the best times to look out for them, just make sure you've got your macro settings sorted out. Another couple of spots to get up close to the splendid and tiny is our wildlife garden, we hosted a hummingbird hawkmoth there on Tuesday with another seen at Freiston on Thursday, and the short bunded path to the 360 hide. It's an absolute jungle along there, I never know what I'm going to see!
Roesel's bush cricket - Neil Smith
If you do spot any creepy crawlies and you're unsure what it is, please let us know by posting on here or using any of our social media pages which are all linked below.
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