Our star bird last week remained into this week, where it was joined by a second bird for several days, though it did have to share top billing with a cracking juvenile pectoral sandpiper at the Freiston reservoir.
Unfortunately the wryneck did prove elusive towards the latter of it's 8 day stay, not seen after the 2nd, and reports of poor field craft and flushing the bird from bushes did reach the visitor centre, though not much could be done by any staff or volunteers due to the distance. By the time someone made it out to see what was going on the path was empty of both bird and visitors. The best course of action in this instance is to have a quiet word with the group/individual about their actions as they may be unaware they are causing any problems. Hopefully this is an isolated incident and the same fate didn't befall the reported red-backed shrike in the same area on the 31st.
Wryneck - Neil Smith
Pectoral Sandpiper - Paul Sullivan - Lincolnshire Bird Club
The other notable highlight of the week was a potential record breaking count of curlew sandpiper, with 66 seen with the pectoral sandpiper on the 31st. This is not only the biggest group seen together on either of the LWR reserves, but possibly the largest every recorded in the county! Also present with them were 39 greenshank which, while not a record count as we can get 100+ on the Frampton salt marsh in good years, is still an impressive sight.
It's been a good week for little stint starting on the 31st when there were 2 at Frampton and 4 at Freiston and ending with 5 together at Frampton on the 5th. With the high tides coming this weekend, a 7.50m at 07:50 on Saturday the 7th and another 7.50m at 08:23 on Sunday 8th, there is a great chance of increasing these counts if we can get a few visitors down early doors.
It's my first weekend manning the Frampton Visitor Centre and I have my spies out in the field so I'll do my best to get news out and co-ordinate sightings from both reserves. If any of you are on twitter I will be tweeting updates out via our official RSPB Lincs and Norfolk account .
Anyway, back to our sightings......
Wildfowl continue to build on last week and this will be a theme over the next few months. Many of our resident ducks are still in their dowdy 'eclipse' plumage but migrant teal and wigeon numbers are on the up, and in the mix we have had a few pintail. One was on the Marsh Farm reservoir on the 2nd and 5 were on South Scrape on the 5th.
Birds of prey are still well recorded and reported daily, though a large pale bird out on the salt marsh on a very warm and hazy 3rd was almost certainly an osprey but views just couldn't clinch it. Now is the best time to pick them out so get on the sea bank and get scanning.
While not on the sea bank I did have a magical 140 degree scan from the visitor centre on the 2nd. First up was a male merlin sat on a bare patch in front of the Reedbed Hide. As I continued to pan starlings and waders started to get up from the scrapes, a sure sign the merlin was on the hunt. A quick look back and he was still there, something else! I picked up a second merlin in a dive and followed it over the scrapes onto the Marsh Farm wet grassland where it landed on a fence post. It flicked off and flew towards me where it was ambushed. Ah, the male merlin had come over. A scan back to the reedbed and he was still there! A look back, through binoculars this time, showed the aggressor to be a hobby. They tussled for a bit before sitting together on a hay bale, something I've never seen before.
Merlin (left) and hobby (right) - Toby Collett
Continuing with my scan and a kestrel was hovering over the cross bank, followed by two more kestrels harrying a young marsh harrier. 7 raptors in 140 degrees in 5 minutes, incredible!
As well as strong wader numbers this week, variety has remained high with little ringed plover, ringed plover, spotted redshank, golden plover, grey plover, knot, dunlin, ruff, snipe, spotted redshank, green sandpiper and common sandpiper all to be seen daily on the scrapes mixed in with the 3,000+ black-tailed godwit. The high tides this weekend may mean you'll be able to see many of these in one binocular view alone!
Several turtle dove are still around the reserve with a total of 7 seen on the 4th. A cuckoo was seen on the 29th and a different bird on the 30th, which are probably the last we'll see of this once common breeder this year. Off the back of these records I'd just like to bring your attention to the utterly immense and brilliant BTO Cuckoo tracking website. Several birds have been fitted with satellite tags to allow us to see their migration routes and timings, both to African and back again. A quick look now and I see that only one of the tagged birds is still in Europe! The rest are in their wintering grounds already. Utterly compelling viewing and providing us with so much information that will hopefully help the long term conservation of this iconic species.
Cuckoo (juvenile) - Toby Collett
Those that made their way down the Tab's Head track for the wryneck were treated to a few migrants with lesser whitethroat, redstart, willow warbler, and spotted flycatcher flitting about in the hawthorns.
A large group of 30 yellow wagtail were around the Freiston lagoon on the 3rd, with several zipping around the scrapes at Frampton. Like the cuckoo, many of our breeding migrants will be saying their final farewells in the next few weeks so catch them while you can.
Away from the birds we've had some great sightings of stoat around the Frampton Visitor Centre and car park and a water vole ran across the path to the 360 hide on the 5th.
Butterfly numbers and variety is tailing off, though some late flowering buddleia are still attracting a few and we'll finish this week with the gorgeous canary-shouldered thorn that made it's way into the office on Thursday morning.
Canary-shouldered thorn - Chris Andrews
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The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder