So Easter has been and gone, eggs have been eaten and just as the schools are looking to get busy again, so is the reserve. There is SOOO much going on at the minute! All our resident birds are setting up territories with many building nests and some on eggs already. We are now adding to this with new birds coming in. Check the arrival poster below to see what's been seen and more importantly, what's still to be found. Sedge warbler and house martin are the current bookies favourites going by previous years, with garganey, common tern and whitethroat the outsiders for this weekend. Chance to have your find date immortalised in the Frampton record books if you can find one :)
Will actually mix things up a bit and pop the weekly sightings map in now as that has the location of some of the new arrivals mentioned above on.
1. Little ringed plovers are now firmly established at Frampton. Although they may be tricky to spot and are pretty good at hide and seek on the ground they are next to useless in the air as they are calling constantly and this may be your best clue as to where they are.
2. Lots of you are still looking for your first swallow and they are now daily at the reserve. The Marsh Farm reservoir and reedbed are your best spots to look for them.
3. Our first green sandpiper turned up on the 8th and was joined by a second the following evening with a third bird was present on the reedbed. Who's next, common or wood?
4. The pair of Mediterranean gulls haven't been as regular as when they were first seen, but we have had a 2nd/3rd summer bird displaying out there which is exactly what happened last year.
5. The jangly metallic song is the giveaway to a corn buntings location as these guys are not the most obvious to see.
6. A handful of twite are still to be found around the car park and sea bank steps but with the warm weather they will be off soon so the weekend could be your last chance to see them.
7. The spotted redshanks that have overwintered with us are losing their clean pale grey winter plumage and are looking a little sooty as they make the transition to their breeding finery.
8. Once more it is the ears that are your best friend in helping you look for these guys. The call is sharp and high pitched and immediately draws the head up to try and pick out the culprit. The will be a little easier to spot next month when there are more of them and they are settled among the cows but for now sightings are fleeting of them flighting.
9. With willow warbler, chiffchaff and blackcap all being heard this week, the cross bank and hedgerows are the place to be for other arrivals. Brush up on whitethroat and sedge warbler song and get out there!
And to follow our topsy turvy start, here's the reserve highlights. I did our first scrape survey this year on the 8th and was very pleased to see our water levels right where we want them and oodles of lapwing nests out on the grassland, all as expected so far. What wasn't expected were these two beauties on South Scrape. Fllowing on from the Australian wood duck we had last year was this pair of Australian black swans. No idea where they've come from no idea where they went as there we couldn't find them the next day.
Black swan
A good chunk (90%?) of our brent geese have departed but they are still here in the high hundreds and include this very pale backed bird along with a couple of the more expected pale bellied birds.
Pale backed dark bellied brent goose
And it is't just the brents that are leaving us, pintail, wigeon and teal numbers are all a shadow of their winter peaks with wildfowl numbers on the down as the variety increases over the next few months. Shelduck are the noticeable exception to this with numbers up and dispersed nicely across the reserve.
Although we have oodles of oystercatchers at Freiston over the winter, they are a scarce bird south of the Witham at Frampton. Things change in spring though and several piping pairs look to be on territory around the reserve.
Oystercatcher - Neil Smith
The other pied wader we have lots of are avocet. I counted over 120 on the 9th which is incredible considering there were none here 6 years ago! Not sure we can expect such an increase over the next 6 years but we do have plans up our sleeves so never say never....
Not all 120 of our avocets are the same however. At least three of these birds have red colour rings on, part of the Dunkirk project in Cambridgeshire. A6, D5 and H7 are currently on the reserve and although we know H7 is a male, we don't know the sex of the other two so please keep an eye out and let us know if you see any behaviour that may indicate one gender or another. A wider plea, ie beyond the Frampton boundaries, is to keep an eye out for H7. Seen by me on the 26th being protective over a female on Middle Scrape, it was observed mating the following day.... at Alkborough Flats! This is an unusual movement but to add further to the tale was it's reappearance at Frampton on the 9th. We've no idea what he's thinking so if anyone can help pin him down we, and the Dunkirk team, would really appreciate it.
Avocet H7
Details of H7 courtesy of Dunkirk Avocets
There is a monochromatic feel to our waders over the winter as many go grey but as the daylight lengthens a little bit of colour starts to appear. Black-tailed godwits are the first to show some rouge with many having a rusty head and tummy and the occasional darker feather in the mantle. With over 200 on the reserve at the minute you will get a good chance to see both summer and winter plumage birds side by side.
Black-tailed godwit - Alan Brewster
And it isn't just avocet that sport some fancy colours, black-tailed godwits are also a well studied species with some incredible insights being gleaned from re-sightings. You may remember the guest blog from last year that Robert very kindly wrote for us explaining godwit colour ringing. Will he beat last years tally of recording over 150 different birds? We'll let you know in the Autumn.
Black-tailed godwit Y-OO//W - Alan Brewster
13.09.14
Terrington, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
16.09.14
Gedney, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
10.10.14
25.02.15
Freiston, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
30.03.15
Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
02.04.15
Sightings history of black-tailed godwit Y-OO//W
Our 50+ ruff are starting to get dressed up too with several beginning to show their true colours. Blacks, whites and gingers will all be on display soon and the first true ruffed birds should be seen in the first week of May. Until then we can enjoy their transition.
Ruff - Alan Brewster
As May approaches our wader variety increases. We've had bar-tailed godwit and grey plover this last week and I'm sure we'll get a knot or two on the high tide. We currently have 19 species of wader recorded on our managed habitats this month. Common and wood sandpiper along with whimbrel will be our next target species to record.
The clamour and chatter of our black-headed gull colony is now audible well before you arrive on the reserve. Over 600 pairs are currently making Frampton their home and will provide some interesting watching as the season progresses. We have had Mediterranean gulls in the colonies at both Frampton and Freiston with an adult pair and 2nd/3rd winter at the first and a lone adult at the latter.
Black-headed gull - Neil Smith
Birds of prey are getting less frequent now with daily sightings not guaranteed like they were a few weeks ago. Opportunities are still there to be had though, with a good day on the 2nd including 2 merlin, 2 hen harrier and barn owl. Peregrines look t have set up once more atBoston Stump and we've had a few raids from the male over the week. Hen harriers and merlin will be moving back to the uplands soon so this may well be last multiple sighting. Hopefully the next ringtail bird we see may well be a Montagu's as they start to head back from Africa.
Barn owl - Neil Smith
It's a great time to get to grips with some of our familiar songsters and also those that may be unfamiliar. Both of Framptons farmland buntings fall into this category with yellowhammer and corn bunting being well represented along the reserves periphery, singing their distinctive songs from exposed song posts. Worth tuning in now before our warblers return and a multitude of song fills your ears on every visit.
Corn bunting - Andrew Steele
So as we say goodbye to thousands of birds, we now open our arms to welcome those that fill their void, which is pretty much everything else! Flowers are busting through, butterflies are on the wing, dragonflies and moths will soon follow and there will be more opportunities to stumble across mammals, amphibians and reptiles. This is exactly what Simon did the other day as he managed to get a quick bit of footage of two water voles engaged in making the next generation of water voles. Check out the link to our Facebook page below to see it.
Water vole - Jeremy Eyeons
Maybe a little easier to spot, and hear, are the toads that currently occupy nearly every ditch we have. Best places to see them are at the ends of waterways. Look out for them near Mount Hirons and at the 360 Hide junction and also be careful when driving down to the bottom car park early morning and late evening as they do like to wander.
Toad
That's all from me this week. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and if you can't wait 7 days to know what's going on here, keep your finger on the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves pulse by following us on Twitter and giving us a ‘like’ on Facebook. Alternatively if you enjoy taking pictures and have a Flickr account then please join our group and share your images with everyone. If you are thinking of paying a visit from near or far please do check out the tide times which can make a big difference to both numbers and variety of birds seen on the day.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder