Howdy folks, and welcome back to another edition of the Frampton Marsh recent sightings. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
Right, I promised you some photos this week. But before we get onto the pretty pictures, here are some maps. Let's start with Saturday 14 October...
Still a hobby about, presumably chasing the last few swallows and the remnants of the dragonflies. Of which there are still a few about.
I think I'm right in saying this was the last day an avocet was seen. Unless it is lurking out there, unremarked upon. Please keep your eyes peeled! Last year one (nicknamed Avril) stayed with us all winter. No real reason why they shouldn't, so it will be interesting to see if any do so again.
Lots of other good birds in there too. Including the third ever record on the reserve for coal tit!
Stonechats are getting quite visible around the back of the reedbed. They are typically quite showy, posing on top of bushes and other foliage.
No map for Tuesday. Which is a bit of a shame, given that we had a Leach's petrel in! It was seen from the 360 hide before heading off inland. Luckily Steve Black managed to get some footage of it. You can see the video on his twitter feed.
Also an unusual sighting that day was an Alexandrine parakeet. Evidently someone's lost pet!
Back to the maps the following day...
A bit on the damp side that day, hence the paper copy. First winter male scaups seem to be annual now at the reserve, and this year's one seems to have just turned up!
After the bad weather of Wednesday, Thursday brought a surprise in the form of two common scoter. You can often see them by sea watching either at Freiston Shore or after the long walk from Frampton down to the river mouth, but to get them actually on the reserve is rather unusual.
Nice to see a male hen harrier back. A ringtail (ie either a female or a youngster, very tricky to distinguish between them) has been previously seen.
Right, that is a quick gallop through the maps. What about those photos? OK, ok, here they come. We will start with those scoters, captured here by Hannah Baker
As already mentioned, the stonechats are very showy and love to perch on top of vegetation. The old sunflower heads can be a favourite. Here are a male and a female, taken by Macca.
Over the past couple of weeks 'Hula' our summering whooper swan has received a lot of media attention. Even being mentioned on Radio 4's Thought for the Day, and being featured on national Irish radio. Here Richard Bailey has got a flight shot, clearly showing the damaged wing.
Richard also too this merlin's photo
While if you like birds of prey, this hobby was a great shot by Adrian Leybourne
Talking of hunters, Jeremy Eyeons found this weasel (with prey). Very lucky for it to be still enough to photograph. Whenever I see them they are blurs of motion!
Proceeding at a rather more sedate pace was this toad, headed off to find someone to hibernate when it met Macca
Another familiar animal from an unusual angle would be this cormorant, taken by Graeham Mountenay. Not often you see them looking like this!
For sheer timing though, how about this picture of a greenfinch by Oliver Woodman. You can actually see the husk of the sunflower seed it has just shelled flying away!
Well, that should just about do it. Wait, what? Where is the weekly photo by Neil Smith? Well, if you like. He's gone all arty on us this 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.