What a couple of weeks!! The reserve is looking better and better and we know this because more and more birds are loving it here! This is when management really kicks in and we hope that by putting water in the right place at the right time we can hopefully hold onto all these birds right through to Spring. Without careful management we could easily lose all feeding resources in one area without having planned to offer resources in another. Always thinking and juggling, lets hope it works :)
To the map!!
1. A reserve wide count on the 23rd resulted in 2 water pipits being found. The first at Marsh Farm reservoir (still present at time of writing) and one from the sea bank. It was only a matter of time before these were found so it's good to get them to finish, and hopefully start, the year.
2. The count mentioned above allowed us to put a figure on all these birds and we're pretty confident it's an underestimate due to area like the Reedbed and Middle Scrape being very hard to count due to the cover. So the minimum number of wetland birds on the reserve (freshwater bit, not the saltmarsh) is a whopping 18,870!! With that count being at low tide we know we missed out on more waders feeding out in the Wash. A good tide could comfrotably push us over 20,000. Highlights were a relatively low brent goose count of 689 (see last sightings blog for reasons why), 165 pink-footed geese, 5.142 wigeon, 1,560 teal, 105 pintail, 7,045 golden plover, 3,250 lapwing, 89 curlew, 68 black-tailed godwit and 62 ruff. Aye carumba! For a full break down of the count see John's Lincs Bird Club post.
3. The stonechat can be found in their favoured spot, along the fence line running away from the cattle corral as you walk towards East Hide.
4. Our resident 1st winter drake scaup can be seen well from both the Visitor Centre and Reedbed Hide. He can usually be found in the lea of the bigger island, snoozing with pochard and tufted duck.
5. Up to 5 corn bunting have been taking advantage of the crop we manage along the back of the Reedbed. We don't usually get corn buntings over wintering in multiples so to have a handful bodes well for now and the future.
6. Thanks to Anthony, some careful rejigging and designing of our feeder area has seen a huge increase in numbers. Tree sparrows, goldfinch and greenfinch make up the bulk of numbers but yellowhammer, reed bunting and chaffinch are seen regularly there too.
7. With windy conditions over the last few days, the barn owl hasn't been seen as regularly but if the wind does drop there's no doubt it will take advantage of the opportunity to hunt so scan those areas of long grass.
8. What a couple of weeks it's been for Frampton's birds of prey, and what a way to top it off with our first walk with the Warden on the 23rd. The theme was Talon Spotting and we certainly did. A territorial pair of peregrines had a hunt and a rest and were then drawn into action, as they tussled with a young female. A merlin zipped low over the road before perching perfectly for all to see before we headed to the sea bank and scanned the Saltmarsh. A distant merlin was picked out but then all attentions were diverted to an absolutely stunning Grey Ghost. The much hoped for male hen harrier made three passes, getting closer each time and at one point perched up on a post next to a merlin. A couple of ring tail hen harriers stayed a little further out but were well received and much better seen than the barn owl about 2 kilometres away. All this with a supporting cast of all the birds mentioned above made for a very memorable day indeed. If there's enough interest we may well look to run another Raptor Spectacular in January or February... who's in?
*News just in from Freiston*.... 2 snow buntings feeding on the saltmarsh strand line and a whopping 220 pintail and 33 goldeneye on the saline lagoon!
Scaup can be a hard bird to catch up with away from the sea but we do pretty well for them here with at least one wintering with us. The drake on the Reedbed has been pretty site faithful though unfortunately quite distant so Ian did pretty well capturing the shot below which shows off all it's identification features. Steep forehead, no tuft, small black 'nail' on the bill and the vermiculated mantle feathers that look grey from a distance.
1st winter drake scaup - Ian Bollen
Golden plover numbers are building very nicely along with many of our wader numbers. As well as the numbers mentioned above we've also had a couple of spotted redshank out on Roads Farm and 3 greenshank flew onto the Reedbed during our raptor walk. Ruff and black-tailed godwit numbers are on the up as we create more suitable habitat and a big tide will certainly push more dunlin our way. You may have seen Chris' post about our retention of the Golden Welly, meaning we are once more the best RSPB reserve for waders in the whole country. Although we officially tied with Titchwell, an Ozil from the Frampton team on October the 7th did bring them up to speed when we found a pectoral sandpiper there. Although we officially both got 33 species, if the competition had been annual we would have taken it with the reserve's first purple sandpiper found in November. That took us to 34 for the year equaling the record set in 2013 and 2014, both by us :) Can we go one better next year? We need all eyes and ears so please help us out and break our own record.
Golden plover en masse - Dawn McCall
Where you have lots of waders and wildfowl, inevitably you will also find things that eat them and we are fortunate to have such species in abundance. As mentioned above we do very well for raptors indeed and we have a had a great couple of weeks, both at Frampton and Freiston. The south end of Freiston often holds short-eared owl, merlin, sparrowhawk and hen harrier in the arable strips while peregrines zip over the lagoon. The territorial pair here are often loafing out on the grassland and put on quite the show when they hunt in tandem. The fastest animal that ever lived ever is at Frampton Marsh on a regualr basis, how awesomely cool is that!
Peregrine - Anthony Bentley
Peregrine (female and male) - Anthony Bentley
But it's not all about the big birds, closer to home and maybe more familiar are the birds on our feeders. We have had a rejig and a play and the feeding area is now as good as it's ever been for both birds and visitors. They are now closer to see from the Visitor Centre and are posing perfectly for photographers due to carefully placed perches. That and there are now far more of them is proving to be a real winner with everyone.
Goldfinch - Dawn McCall
Greenfinch - Dawn McCall
And as well as giving you guys a better view outside, we've also given you more to look at inside with Feeder Cam. As we lead up to the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, you'll be able to have a close up view of our birds and have a chat with our volunteers about which species is which and what to feed them. We'll be doing a lot more in the New Year as we gear up to the worlds biggest wildlife survey and we want you all to be involved. Keep an eye out on the blog, social media and in the Visitor Centre for more information.
Feeder Cam in action - Anthony Bentley
Well it's been another incredible year and I've loved trying to share it with all of you. Apologies for it being intermittent but I hope that when I do post that it's well received and enjoyed. If not then please let me know and I'll do my best to improve.
Thank you for all your visits, sightings and support for both reserves during 2015 and we hope that the work we're doing here is both inspiring and engaging. If we could ask for a Christmas present from all of you it would be to shout about Frampton and Freiston as much as you can to friends and family and beyond. We love making it what it is and hope you do too.
Remember we're closed tomorrow, well the Visitor Centre is, but Chris will be back in on the 26th and 27th and I'll be holding the fort on the 28th so please pop in and say hello.
We wish you all a great Christmas and New Year and see you again in 2016.
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.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder