Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh (and sometimes Freiston Shore) recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy!
Second blog of the year, so what do we have for you? Let the maps commence...
The 'big five' are five species of raptor. Well, four and an owl, but that is splitting hairs. With a bit of patience (and possibly a good scope to look out over the saltmarsh) you should be able to get all five in one day.
Aside from them, the dowitcher and Bewick's swans were still about.
Bearded tits calling in the reedbed are a promising sign, after we lost them last spring. Does this mean they are back? We certainly hope so.
Also popping back were waxwings, feeding on berries near the car park. Corn buntings are a pretty good spot for this time of year too as they tend to hide. Not like May when they sit on top of bushes and shout their heads off!
A water pipit has been dotting about the reserve. Normally on the landward side of the sea bank. There are also meadow pipits about, and rock pipits are sometimes on or under the sea bank, so it might be worth mugging up on ID features!
The Bewick's swans seem to have left us. Or leastways were not seen when the whoopers came in to roost.
Nice to get some Freiston highlights. A decent high tide there can reveal some good things on The Wash at this time of year. There is a sea watching hide to give some shelter from the elements too, though as it is open fronted, wrapping up warm is still a good idea!
Sorry, no map for the Thursday, but I do know rock pipits were seen on the sea bank and the short-tailed field voles were showing very well under the centre feeders.
Right, maybe we should have some photos...
Shall we start with something which isn't strictly speaking wildlife, but does get a lot of admiring looks. 'Teddy' is a Galloway calf that has been fostered with one of the Belted Galloway cows that live on the reserve. He is very cute, and often quite inquisitive about people inside the visitor centre. Mark Sargeant took this picture of him having a drink.
Sometimes we take common birds for granted. But when you get the light on them, or a close-up view then you can appreciate their beauty. Steve Whiteley shows this off well with shots of starling and lapwing.
Finally, regular contributor Jeremy Eyeons seems to have caught this female tufted duck after it got out of the wrong side of bed. Grumpy or what?
If you are coming to visit us, you can keep up to date with the sightings by following our Twitter account. No need to have an account yourself, we make it so everyone can see it. If you do tweet yourself, please remember to use #RSPBframpton so we can see what you are posting, and also ideally mention @RSPBNorfolkLinc. If you have any good photos (or video, or even artwork) we'd love to see that too. Tweet it, or share it on our Facebook page or our Flickr account. It may also be useful for you to know the weather and tide times for the site, which may well have an impact on what is showing. Finally, if the weather turns out to be colder than you'd planned on, you can buy hats, scarves and gloves, lovingly knitted by our lovely volunteers, from the visitor centre.
All the best, take care, and I will catch you next time!
Chris