Well it seems that Friday the 13th is indeed an unlucky day, well for most at least. A dotterel was found before our doors opened on Friday morning and despite some excellent views for the lucky two initial observers, it disappeared into the long grass at Marsh Farm and wasn't seen again despite a good observer presence. Although annual in small groups in the county during spring, dotterel is a scarcer find in the autumn usually, but the two previous Frampton records have been seen in September so maybe they're overlooked or are we just special?
Unfortunately there wasn't much to compete with the dotterel for our bird of the week but it was nice to be able to award the honour after drawing a blank last week.
Dotterel - Ian Ellis
It seems as if the peak time for curlew sandpiper is over, though still a fistful to be found amongst the ever increasing dunlin, but happily a new peak of waders has replaced them. A maximum count of 12 little stint was made on Monday with a steady and regular 7 being viewable together throughout the week. The pools near the path to the 360 Hide have been most productive for them but for those wanting to venture a little further to the East Hide views like the one below could be your reward.
Little Stint - Russ Telfer
The last of Septembers high tides started on Wednesday, working towards a peak this Saturday morning at 07:46. With wader numbers in the wash continue to increase it is worth checking out the tide times and planning a visit to Freiston or Frampton around them. Make sure you're here about 2 hours before the tide to experience the birds coming in to roost. I had fortuitously done this on the 19th and it was an amazing site seeing 2,000+ black-tailed godwit coming over the sea bank and over my head onto South Scrape. The atmosphere of the reserve changed immediately as they started to chatter away, though hushed up pretty quickly when hobby zipped over. Counts of knot are on the rise with more accompanying the godwits on to the scrapes as the days go on. Passage waders are still well represented with 4 spotted redshank, 3 greenshank and 2 green sandpiper still to be seen, and heard, on the reserve while our breeding birds, 5 avocet on the 17th, are still clinging on too. Several small parties of golden plover have been checking us out a Frampton and although they haven't settled yet it's only a matter of time before they do. If you are struggling to see any on the ground, make sure you learn their distinctive call which will help you pick them up as they circle overhead.
The hay bales on Marsh Farm have been removed for the cattle, reducing perching opportunities for merlin a little but the regular female didn't seem to mind as she was still around on the 17th and 19th. Could the hobby mentioned above be the last of the year? With numbers of swallow, house martin and sand martin all dwindling, we may have to wait till the spring to see one again :( Please let us know if you do see one on your visit so we can add it to our records. A few juvenile marsh harrier have been over the scrapes and on the saltmarsh recently but no sign of anything ring-tailed yet. Keeping with the talon theme, it wasn't all doom and gloom for one observer who came to see the dotterel. Despite not being able to relocate it they did see their first barn owl for two years hunting over the reedbed. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see the return of short-eared owl to the reserve....
As with our waders, there's been a bit of a switcheroo in our warblers. The last few weeks have seen good numbers of willow warbler around the reserve but last week they were well outnumbered by chiffchaff. The big parties of yellow wagtail have also dwindled a wee bit, half a dozen was the maximum count this week so still out there to be found but be quick. And finally, a whinchat on the 15th cut a solitary figure on one of the fence posts before heading off over the grassland, doing its best to avoid the watchful eye of our Merlin.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder