Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton and Freiston recent sightings. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
What is that? What happened to last week's edition? Er, yes. Chris has been a baaaaaaad boy, and didn't do the blog for last week. Oops, sorry! Oh well, double the delight this time. Shall we see what we missed?
Very mobile garganeys delighted those lucky enough to find them. Needless to say, I wasn't one of them!
First sedge warbler for the year is always a big milestone. Won't be long before the reserve resounds to their song
The spoonbill was being nice and showy, pacing about on middle scrape in full view of all three hides
Not sure where the Egyptian geese popped up from! (Though I'm guessing not Egypt)
It might have been Friday the 13th, but the first willow warbler of the year was nice. Still some signs of winter though, with a ringtail hen harrier.
Sorry, no map for the Saturday, but there was the report of another garganey.
Firecrest is a lovely bird, and this is the second spring in a row when we've had one, in pretty much the same sort of area. Brambling and red-throated diver showed that winter hadn't totally gone. Interestingly a red-throated diver was later picked up inland from a golf course, further up the river Witham. The same bird? The big news was the number of little gulls. 33 at once is a great number.
Finally! The first wheatear of the year made us wait. But we eventually got one.
Even more little gulls at Freiston Shore
First common tern for the year.
And this was the latest from today
So there are all the maps. As you can see, quite a lot happening. Now is the time when all sorts of things can turn up. I'm going to stick my neck out and claim we'll get some black-winged stilts before too long...
OK, so those were the sightings. Shouldn't there be some nice photos? Well, yes there should. But first, a video. Though a warning, as those people not keen on snakes should not follow the link. @Railraptor got some close up footage of not one, not two, not even three but four grass snakes.
OK, how about some things with feathers. Now hold your horses. It is not just birds that are of interest. There was for example a nice roe deer wandering about earlier this week. Though apparently not a potty-trained one. Thanks to Nigel Taylor for this:
And we may not be in May, but we do have some darling buds. Credit here to Rod Smith
Yes, yes, OK. You want some birds... How about these greylag geese by Jeremy Eyeons who appear to be looking for a lost contact lens
Or this synchronised flyby by some black-tailed godwits. Thanks to Steve Whitely
Steve also got this nice close-up of a skylark, for once not hovering high above our heads
In contrast to the serenity of those, Richard Bailey got some nice action shots. First up two redshanks having quite a spat
On the other hand, these ringed plovers were getting on much better. Er, yes. indeed. They are, um, playing leapfrog. Yes, that is definitely what they are doing...
Worth noting the difference between the ringed plovers there, and this little ringed plover. As photographed by Jeff Everett.
Note the all dark bill on the little ringed plover, as opposed to the yellow and black on the ringed plover. Also the prominent yellow eyering.
Talking of eye features, the eye stripe on the firecrest really makes it stand apart from goldcrests. Thanks to Karl Royce for this one.
Last but by no means least, where would we be without Neil Smith. Sometimes my trouble is to avoid having him swamp the blog with all his great shots. Strap in, we have a few today...
The spoonbill was in really nice plumage, with a great crest and yellow on the front
Though it did get a bit bored of the attention!
Talking of lovely white birds...
A bit of nice lighting can really make most birds' photos be just that little bit better though...
And not just birds. Consider the humble reed head
Of course sometimes it is all about the action, as with this weasel
Are you fed up of Neil's photos yet? Don't worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel....
Looking ahead to the weekend, the weather is looking pretty reasonable. The threat of rain has apparently moved away, so it ought to be fine all weekend. Not as warm as it has been, highs of around 19 and a bit of a southerly breeze to cool us down.
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 you would like to give us an extra bit of support you can text to donate money to the reserve. Please text FRAM26 followed by £2, £5 or £10 (eg FRAM26£5) to 70070.
So, that is pretty much everything. I hope you all have a great week, stay safe, and I will catch you all next time!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.