Crumbs, this week has flow past! After the heads up we gave you last week regarding the super high tides that were upon us over the Bank Holiday weekend and some favourable weather conditions the birding has been non stop. Top billing and potentially the LWR's rarest bird of the year goes to the adult Franklin's Gull that flew north east over a select few observers at 09:30 on the 25th. If accepted this would be only the second record of this new world gull in the county, the first being seen 15 years ago on the 13th of May at Kirkby-on-Bain. As this bird chose not to linger, the bird of the week (for everyone but the lucky observers at Freiston) was the wryneck found on the 26th in the hawthorn on the way to Tabb's Head. While this is not strictly on the reserve, the bird did occasionally fly out over the saltmarsh, which is DEFINITELY on the reserve, as it looped from cover to cover. There is only one previous record of wryneck at Frampton but with a HUGE influx (125 recorded nationally including 27 alone at Spurn Bird Observatory) of these cryptic wonders it was probably our best chance to bag another.
Wryneck picking ants off the grass on the sea bank - Russell Hayes
As Autumn draws near we have seen a notable increase of wildfowl with the first pintail of the year being recorded and notable increases in both wigeon and teal, 360 of the latter being counted on the scrapes at the end of last week. I'm sure there's still a garganey or two out there though none were reported this week.
The birds of prey recorded last week were the same this week bar the addition of a Montagu's harrier reported from the sea bank 'Raptor Viewpoint' on the 25th. The merlin was regularly seen on the wet grassland with one lucky visitor enjoying seeing it in an aerial tussle with a hobby. A different peregrine to the bird seen last week showed off its true hunting prowess by taking a black-tailed godwit off the ground before over half of them even knew it was there, incredible to watch.
It will be no surprise to read waders were once again the highlight following the tides over the weekend, including the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves highest ever count of curlew sandpiper with 43 seen at the Freiston reservoir on the 29th accompanied by 6 little stint, which is the peak count so far this year. It's been tricky to get a definitive count of black-tailed godwit with figures ranging from 2,000-5,000. It's pretty safe to say that the actual number is somewhere in the middle which is an awful lot of birds. ruff numbers continue to build with over 60 dotted around, with small parties moving frequently between the scrapes and newly cut wet grassland.
Ruff (left) and black-tailed godwit (right) on the reedbed - Toby Collett
Lingering on into this week at Frampton were 5 spotted redshank, 8 greenshank, single wood sandpiper, 4 green sandpiper (6 at Fresiton reservoir), 2 common sandpiper (4 at Fresiton reservoir) and small groups of whimbrel were noted at both sites.
The high tide didn't only bring waders in, 32 black tern lingered off shore at Freiston on the 24th with 16 seen the next day (in the company of several little gull) and 2 juveniles made it onto the Frampton scrapes on the 27th. A couple of little tern were also picked out amongst the larger terns fishing at the Witham mouth.
While the wryneck hogged the passerine headlines, it wasn't the only migrant brought in by favourable conditions. Both wheatear and whinchat were seen on the sea bank and the Tabbs Head path also held willow warbler , lesser whitethroat, redstart and spotted flycatcher for those adventurous enough to venture all the way down to the end. A couple of spotted flycatcher were also seen at Freiston proving that we aren't all about the big birds here at the LWR.
With all the citrine wagtails seen this week (including birds at our Marazion Marsh and Conwy reserves) fingers were very tightly crossed that one would make an appearance here amongst the many yellow wagtail we have zipping around. Unfortunately we drew a blank but there's always next week.
We've had a thoroughly good week of non avian records including the first reserve record of eyed hawk-moth seen on a willow next to the path to east hide.
Eyed hawk-moth caterpillar - Toby Collett
Keeping with moths a flash of crimson revealed the presence of a red underwing in the office car park.
Red underwing - Toby Collett
Clouded yellow butterflies have been more prominent around the reserve with a high count of 12 during the week, with a good supporting cast of common blues bringing flashes of colour to the path edges.
And to wrap up the week we had a fantastically close encounter with a grass snake out on the saltmarsh. There have been quite a few seen by our visitors this week so keep an eye ot for them basking in any sun we're lucky enough to get in the first week of September.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder