Slightly more on the ball this week with up to date map AND some cracking photos as well :D
Headlines this week include three pectoral sandpipers together from East Hide on the evening of 11 September and at least 13 little stints and 50 curlew sandpipers across Frampton on 9 September! The tides were incredible throughout the week, showing a very different side of the reserve as it brought the salt marsh into its own. Birds were all over the place as they were moved from high ground to higher ground by the incoming water. Unfortunately we won't be seeing tides like this again till next year so hopefully you managed to see the reserve looking different this week.
1. Sea aster mining bee - A very localised colonial bee, confined to sandy coastal habitats. In a European context this is the UK's rarest bee and we have it here :)
Sea aster mining bee - Paul Sullivan
2. The glossy ibis is a wanderer and as water levels naturally dry it is moving about but still seen daily and these are the best places to look.
3. At least two and up to four kingfishers have been seen around East Hide and along the ditch that runs between the sea bank and Roads Farm Wet Grassland
Kingfishers - Matt Merritt
4. We've had varying spoonbill numbers but this patch of Roads Farm Wet Grassland is where they are usually seen.
5. More waders than we can shake a stick at, or at least count with a degree of certainty. You can't move for little Stints and curlew sandpipers, with plenty of spotted redshanks, greenshanks and ruffs for company. Snipe are enjoying the margins and high tides brought in oodles of black-tailed godwits and knots. There was a report of Baird's sandpiper on the evening of 10 September but no sign next morning.
Pectoral sandpiper - Paul Sullivan
6. The fencelines along the eastern border are a magnet for wheatear which associate with groups of yellow wagtail and meadow pipit.
Wheatear - George Polden
7. Obvious increases in wigeon and teal on the Roads Farm Wet Grassland with several hundred birds in total. Pintails are just coming back too and garganeys are still there to be found..... honest.
8. It's a great time of year to catch up with and find the last of this years summer visitors. Favourable winds (anywhere between the North and East) and some early morning drizzle and rain could be enough to tempt eyes away from the scrapes. The rewards are there with the reserves first record of barred warbler this week as well as other fall migrants including pied and spotted flycatcher, whinchats, willow warblers, chiffchaffs and whitethroats.
Barred warbler - Paul Sullivan
Pied flycatcher - Keith
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.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder