Welcome to the first of what will be a regular feature on our blog, providing a weekly round up of what's been seen on both of the Lincolnshire Wash reserves to tempt you out for a visit at the weekend. And what a weekend it's going to be!
A few lingering brent geese have been seen around the saltmarshes at both Freiston and Frampton but generally the wildfowl highlights have been the broods of shoveler on the Frampton scrapes. The reserve is one of only a handful of sites in the county where shoveler breed so keep an eye out for them from the 360 Hide.
The Lincolnshire Wash Reserves are the best sites in the country for waders, a little bold a statement to make in my first blog post perhaps but one I'll stand by and use the figures to prove it. By the end of June we had recorded 27 different species of wader on managed wetland areas of the reserve (ie not on the sea ward side of the sea wall.) This total has only been reached twice before, once in May of last year and then again in September, with Frampton and Freiston taking the plaudits on both occasions. Can we do the double again this year?
The highlight wader of the week was the adult pectoral sandpiper. This our second of the year following on from one last month.... same bird perhaps? It was found during a routine reserve check up proving that carrying a clipboard and checklist is no hindrance to finding good birds.
Pectoral sandpiper - Tim Jones
Peak wader counts during the last week include 300 black-tailed godwit, (90% looking INCREDIBLE in summer plumage) 3 spotted redshank, 4 ruff, 8 green sandpiper, 3 common sandpiper, 2 greenshank and a single whimbrel. Hatching success for both avocet and lapwing has been excellent at Frampton, less so for the former at Freiston, with youngsters being seen all over the place. The first avocets have already fledged while lapwing chicks have been right in front of the Visitor Centre and East Hide. We also have a few ringed and little ringed plover around the scrapes too, providing a great opportunity to see the differences between the two.
Little ringed plover and ringed plover - Simon and Karen Spavin
With all the young birds we have on site it isn't a surprise to see birds of prey moving through the reserve and it was fantastic to watch a pair of peregrines marauding over the reedbed, maybe not so fantastic for the young black-headed gulls though. The other raptor interest has been the numerous marsh harrier sightings, with a peak count of 4 on Thursday. Rounding off this weeks feathered highlights are the little owls seen around the Marsh Farm cattle corral, a mediterranean gull on the reedbed and the gorgeous turtle doves. The best place to see and hear these are along the public footpath that runs behind the car park and south along the western boundary of the reserve.
The sunny and warm conditions have spurred our insects into life and the butterflies have been out in force with speckled wood along the public footpath behind the car park, and out along the Marsh Farm footpath several ringlet and a single painted lady were great to see.
Bee orchid - Paul Sullivan (Lincolnshire Bird Club)
As mentioned by Chris last week, the stunning bee orchids near East Hide are in full bloom with 8 in the cut area in front of the sign. Defintely worth the walk!
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder