Howdy folks! Welcome back to an extra-large double helping of Frampton Marsh sightings. Yes, apologies for the lack of a blog last week. I was away in the Welsh valleys, and my mobile internet couldn't cope with such things as hills.
Right, so we've got a lot to get through this week. Time to dial up the time machine and go look at what we've missed.
Woodcock is a good autumn bird. Presumably one that had just crossed the North Sea and had just made landfall as otherwise they can be really skulking.
The great white egret was playing peek-a-boo in a ditch all afternoon
The Lapland buntings were seen by a fortunate few, before disappearing at 11 am southwards. Reports of a long-billed dowitcher proved to be erroneous.
Yes, the great white egret was back, and being a little less elusive. Or was it a different one...?
Yes, still there....
And now it wasn't! Good to see bramblings back though. They were regularly seen at that spot last year, so may be worth staking it out.
Sorry, no map for the Sunday. But here is a quick list... And yes, we do mean November, not October! :)
Jack snipe was nice. Do be wary about the large numbers of normal snipe we have about though. The drake scaup had been hiding but made a brief reappearance. Red-necked grebe at the river mouth shows that it is often worth going down there, it is seriously under-watched.
Golden plover flocks are definitely building up. Much to the delight of the peregrines!
You can see from Toby's numbers there that both the golden plover and starling flocks are getting larger.
Not that they always hung around. Most of them headed off somewhere further North tonight. Hopefully they will be back. What was back were the snow buntings. Four again, but were they the same four as earlier in the month?
So, that's the maps, what about the snaps? Any exciting photography to show you? Well, of course there is. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking....
We will start with the oddly elusive great white egret. Surprising how easily something pure white and its size can hide! In this photo by Mark Sargeant, note the big yellow bill. If what you are looking at doesn't have this, it is a little egret. Which can look bigger than usual in certain conditions.
From the large to the small, as Alan Brewster got this lovely portrait of a wren
This little bird is often sadly overlooked. Talking of birds that are overlooked, consider the starling! Glossy green and purple, and a wonderful mimic. Jeremy Eyeons photographed this one snoozing.
Sticking on the small bird theme, one of the features of the site at this time of year are the showy stonechats. Rather than flying away immediately upon seeing you, they will try to stare you down. Which means you can get some brilliant shots of them. The male is by Alan Brewster, the female by Richard Bailey.
Mind you, not every little brown bird sat on top of the vegetation is a stonechat. Sometimes it can be a reed bunting! Cue this photo by Alan Brewster
Of course one of the main themes of the reserve is the wading birds. So here is a nice curlew by Brian Lawrence
Not to forget the wildfowl. Here wigeon are surprised into sudden action, the moment captured by Richard Bailey
Maybe they saw this...
A peregrine, by Ian Bollen.
The wigeon have less to fear from this kestrel, by Alan Bewster
But aside from all the birds, it can be just great to come out and photograph the landscapes. Winter light is great for that, and the clouds can make for dramatic backdrops, as can be seen in these three wonderful examples of putting a wide lens to good use.
Mark Sargeant
Paul Pateman
Neil Smith
As I write this, it is really clear outside. Going to be frosty, but a wonderful time to do a bit of stargazing. Hopefully we will be putting on an Astronomy event with Peterborough Astronomical Society in the new year. But in the meantime get out there and look up!
(Photo by Neil Smith)
So, that about wraps up this bumper edition of the recent sightings. Back to normal (I hope) next week.
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.
I hope you all have a great week, take care, have fun, and I will catch you next time.
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.