Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh sightings blog. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy. Well, lets start with the traditional look through the week's maps. Though I'm afraid we don't have any for last weekend, so we have to start with Monday.
Yes, after disappearing for a couple of weeks, Sheldon the long-billed dowitcher is back in his spot. Returning after an even longer absence was a bearded tit. Beast from the East rather put paid to ours in the spring, so it is nice to see one back again.
No map for Tuesday, as sightings were a bit sparse
Not the case for Wednesday! Dowitcher, hen harrier, short-eared owl, and some big numbers there to delight the senses.
And look who turns up again, it is the Cape shelduck!
Back again today too. No sign of the dowitcher, but it is probably out there, just waiting to be seen again.
Talking of the dowitcher, here is a nice shot of it by IanB
On the less rare side of things, here is a goldfinch having a preen, taken by Jeremy Eyeons
And just a few of the brent geese, Canada geese and wigeon that are abounding on the site at the moment. As photographed by Mark Sargeant
So there we have it for another week. Obviously next week the visitor centre will be closed on Christmas Day. But the reserve will remain open 24/7, and the visitor centre reopens on Boxing Day (though without filled rolls until the Friday as our suppliers are shut for the holidays). 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
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.