Frampton Marsh and Freiston Shore recent sightings 2013. October 4 - 10

And so to a new week and a distinct winter feel to the birds on Thursday as we had our first whooper swans (10 from Frampton and 3 from Freiston), barnacle geese (13 over Frampton) and redwing (small parties overhead throughout the day). The latter was a smidge of what was happening across the country as a huge arrival of redwings took place. My colleague Steve had over 33 THOUSAND pass overhead in four hours at our HQ at The Lodge in Bedfordshire. Incredible! This is all due to the current weather system bringing birds in from Scandinavia. It's worth having a look at the charts and making sure you can head out in the next few days to enjoy what could be some very good birding on the coast.... but enough of what's to come, lets see what else we had last week and what you might still be around for your visit this weekend. If you want to get a real time idea of what birds are moving where and when then take some time to look through the excellent Trektellen website. Clicking on the date to the right of the count site will show what birds were recorded. The information is shared all across Europe so by looking at sites to the east of us we can get an idea of what we might expect on this side of the North Sea. Hawk owl anyone...?

Our reserve first from last week held on into this week and showed exceptionally well on the 5th to lots of very happy faces, especially as it wasn't found till lunch and then gave everyone the run around for about a couple of hours before sort of settling down. There was, understandably, some confusion between the scarcer buff-breasted sandpiper and the more numerous (and very similar) ruff it was associating with.

Buff-breasted sandpiper - Phil Carter

Fortunately I managed to have good look at it with lots of visitors and have pulled together a very quick id sheet (below) showing the features I felt were most helpful to identification in the field. There also look different in flight and Phil has posted some photos of both here. 

Ruff (above) - Neil Smith and buff-breasted sandpiper (below) - Phil Carter

Unfortunately after such a good showing on Saturday it wasn't seen during the day at all on Sunday but reappeared in the evening to roost and was present again briefly on Monday morning. It then roosted on Monday evening, went missing on Tuesday and returned to roost again on Wednesday. While this wasn't the most reliable pattern for trying to see it consolation came in the form of the reserve's SIXTH pectoral sandpiper of the year, appearing on the evening of the 6th and staying on south scrape till the 9th. 

Pectoral Sandpiper - Ian Ellis

A solid supporting cast of waders this week included our peak count of spotted redshank this autumn with 8 on the 5th, 13 avocet on the 5th, 2 little stint at the start of the week dropped to none by the end, but curlew sandpiper held on with 4 throughout the week.

The numbers of brent geese continue to build and are working up to be a fantastic winter spectacle. Most of them are dark-bellied birds but a good scan through may reveal the scarcer pale-bellied form (below). With a few birds of the american race being reported in the country it's worth having a good scan through if they come close enough. Pink-footed geese are still moving through, though they are yet to hang around. Hopefully when we've finished topping and start to lift the water levels conditions will prove suitable and we can expect to see some grazing on the grassland. 

Pale-bellied brent goose - Ian Ellis

Finishing off with land based sightings we've had daily kingfishers at both Frampton and Freiston, wheatear on the Cross Bank at Frampton and barn owl at Frampton. A venture to Tabbs Head on the 5th produced nothing more than a redstart, willow warbler and green woodpecker.

While the thrushes only arrived towards the end of the week pipits and larks were noticeable at the weekend. Skylarks were singing on Saturday and Sunday and over 200 meadow pipits were dotted around the reserve. A scan across the scrape on the 8th revealed a few rock pipits sneaking around with their commoner and paler cousins. A lone siskin flew in off the sea while we were watching the buff-breasted sandpiper on the 5th.

Next week we will start the roundup with something entirely new, a part of the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves that doesn't get a mention much at all until this time of year........ for a teaser click here and here and if you like what you read it may well be worth getting down there for an early start over the next few days.....