Howdy folks, and welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the slightly chilly Visitor Guy.
Brr, yes, turned a bit nippy. Well, it is January after all! What effect will that have on the wildlife? Cue the maps...
The whooper swans have moved to the north of the reserve, though still coming onto the reedbed to roost after dusk. A couple of Bewick's swans remain with them.
More furry action on the Sunday, with the short-tailed field voles showing nicely under the centre feeders. Luckily escaping the attention of a weasel which was hunting elsewhere on the reserve.
Having been elusive for a few days, the dowitcher popped back into view. Well, I say elusive, more on that later. But a definite, on-the-deck view on the Monday. The swan flock to the north of the reserve was growing, with 40+ whoopers, 6 Bewick's and 250 pink-footed geese joinging in the scrum.
All the good stuff was in the usual places on Tuesday, with the exception of the dowitcher which decided to check out what the other side of the road was like
Evidently it didn't like it, it was back in its usual spot on Wednesday! The cape shelduck gave great views, in the field next to the car park. And a grey partridge was a welcome sight of a sadly declining bird.
A full board for Thursday. Twite is a good sighting, though I would caution anyone looking for them to beware of young linnets which look very similar. The rule of thumb is that if the birds are on the seaward side of the seabank, they might be twite. If they are on the landward side, they almost certainly aren't.
Nice to see the tree sparrows and yellowhammers reported. Will the colder weather bring them up to the centre feeders? We wait to see...
So, those are the maps. Not that Saturday's was actually correct. Mind you, no-one realised it at the time. It was only when visitor Ian Dawson got home and went through his photos of the lapwings flying around in a panic after being buzzed by one of the peregrines that he found he's snapped the dowitcher into the bargain!
Picking the Bewick's swans out from the whooper swans can sometimes be a little tricky. Luckily this trio of one adult and two youngsters flew right past the visitor centre, allowing volunteer Mark Sargeant to get a photo
Speaking of the swans, Jeremy Eyeons took this nice shot of some of the whooper swans
He also got great pictures of a drake pochard, and a rather cute looking tree sparrow
Finally, perseverance and lots of layers of warm clothing allowed Ian Bollen to get these shots of a male hen harrier. But who was watching whom?
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