If you follow the bird reports or the local bird club sightings, you may be forgiven for thinking it's been quite a quiet week at Frampton and Freiston, but having been out and about there's been so much going on. Unfortunately last weeks pectoral sandpiper didn't make it into it's second weekend and while being present on the 6th, the reservoir at Freiston was eerily quiet on the Saturday.
Waders remained a big draw for lots of our visitors with peak counts of 5 little stint and 20 curlew sandpiper, the latter of which recieved glowing comments from people in the East Hide due to several showing down to 10 feet, at the start of the week, with little stints tailing off in the last few days. A check of the Marsh Farm reservoir on the 9th revealed 29 greenshank and a juvenile spotted redshank with another 4 adults seen later in the week. The peak of black-tailed godwit reached 3,000 but the daily average wasn't far off this with dunlin and knot being much more noticeable as they alternated between snoozing and running around feeding.
Curlew sandpiper - Neil Smith
The highlight for many this week was the falcon show with merlin, occasionaly two, being a regular sight out on the bales and fenceline of the grassland and hobby showing off it's aerial prowess over the reedbed. An incredible 5 minutes was spent in the 360 hide on Tuesday morning when a merlin was seen in full hunting mode harrying a small bird (reed bunting) around the dead elders near the top car park, To witness the agility, accuracy and speed of this elite hunter at it's peak was incredible but got even better when the smaller bird dived into the trees and the merlin then scrambled in after it, climbing up, down and along the branches to harry it out so it could begin the pursuit once again. Eventually the reedbed provided a safe house and the merlin flew onto the wet grassland to catch it's breath and stake out another opportunity.
Merlin - Mike Langman
A wander around Frampton on Tuesday morning to look at how we can improve the reserve for breeding turtle dove was very succesful with lots of ideas and opportunites presenting themselves, as well as a couple of glimpses of the birds themselves as they flew from cover along the public footpath to the west of the reserve. Unfortunately this once common farmland species has suffered an enormous population crash with 2013 being the worst breeding year ever. We are so concerned about losing them as a breeding species, and this is a very real and serious possibility, that we've launched Operation Turtle Dove to engage both the public and landowners about the plight of this fabulous bird. Please do read up on the work we are doing and report any sightings you've had of them this year.
Turtle dove - Andy Hay
Migrants have been a little thin on the ground but a flash of colour was brought to Freiston by a redstart along the footpath on Sunday and a group of 5 whinchat on the pollen and nectar mix down near the prison the following day was the highest count we've had on the reserve this Autumn.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder