Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh weekly sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
Half-term in Lincolnshire means Toby is off, enthusing his kids about nature. So no round-up vlog this week. I'll put finding out how to do them on my own 'to do' list! But for the meantime, lets do some maps!
The flock of whooper swans remains feeding during the day to the south of the reserve, and sometimes Bewick's swans have been reported with them. Those mentioned here were flying from that direction and heading north. Time for migration?
It is well worth checking through the field closest to the car park as you get out of the car. Many a person has overlooked the ruffs and other waders that feed there. Some of them coming in very close indeed. Something the reserve is very good for.
The little stint makes a reappearance after going missing for a couple of days.
Sorry, no map for Tuesday
It was just a trifle rainy on Wednesday, so had to revert back to the old-style map format, back in the office. Bearded tits were back to showing well near to the sea bank car park. It is worth keeping your ears open around there, or there is a favoured set of reeds next to the path just under the sea bank itself.
The glossy ibis was quite the surprise, drifting northwards over the reserve at 8:20 in the morning. Alas, it did not come back, but you never know... The rock pipits were half a dozen near cattle troughs on the saltmarsh.
Oh, and rarest sighting of all, a silhouette! Not seen one of those for a while...
Yes, it looks like avocets may have returned! A good sign of spring right there. Hopefully we'll soon be seeing lots of the long-legged lovelies, and have them breeding once again on the reserve.
Right, those are the maps, what about some lovely photos? Shall we see what we have for you this week....
We will start off with a couple from Mark Sargeant. And I think you will agree it would be hard to better this as a robin portrait!
It is well worth hanging around until sunset too, to get dramatic shots like this.
And now a couple from another reserve regular, Macca.
Yes, Macca comes through with stonechat picture of the week. Still around, still posing for their public, they really are great value.
Also posing was this starling, really showing off the incredible colours which so often you miss.
As I mentioned with Mark's photo. it is often worth waiting until sunset to get some artistic shots. or being down for first light. The low sun can make for some special effects, such as in this shot of some reeds by Steve Clayton
Dean Cornwell had a great time during his visit. He got some photos of the bearded tits too, though something tells me it might have been a bit cold that day! Look at how puffed up this male is.
He also captured this lovely kestrel on a hunting perch
Last but by no means least we have Oliver Woodman being in the right place at the right time to catch this titanic struggle between worm and wader. My money is on the lapwing!
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.