Howdy folks! And welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy.
So, as we go into autumn.... What? Yes, really. I know the summer holidays have only just started. But from a lot of birds points of view, this is now autumn and time for migration. As a result, rarities will start to drop in now, blown off course as they make their journeys from breeding to wintering grounds. Evidence of that this week. So let's wind up the old map machine and see what has been about.
It has been a bit quiet on the turtle dove front of late. Not quite sure where they are or what they are up to. So this was a nice sighting.
So some migrants here to look at. Such as the migrant hawker dragonfly, I believe the first for the year here. The grasshopper warbler was good value, the volume knob was cranked waaaaay up. I could hear it while stood outside the centre, right the way across the reedbed from it.
Oh, the planes were good too. The same hurricane that was about a couple of weeks ago, plus three spitfires. They even did a little circle over Fishtoft, the village just across the river from us.
Best of all though was the close views of grass snake. It swam across in front of the centre, being attacked by a pair of coots. Maybe they thought it was after their cootlings. Whatever the case, it gave for some fascinating views.
The grasshopper warbler was still there on the Monday. As was the first clouded yellow butterfly of the year, around the pond dipping platform.
The grasshopper warbler was still there Tuesday. And the first curlew sandpipers of the year...
Yes, the grasshopper warbler was still about. And now so too was a red-necked phalarope. Lovely little bird
A bit of a triple whammy for Thursday, despite heavy rain in the morning. Pectoral sandpiper, curlew sandpipers and phalaraope all about.
A crane drifted over the saltmarsh mid-morning. The kitiwake was on the scrapes first thing. There were some interesting pond dipping spots too, see later on for details...
Right, as per usual it is fancy pic and video time. First up, some left over from last week as I was a bit slow in obtaining permission. Thank you Dean (@Dean_A_75) for allowing us to use these.
Awwwww! Little ringed plover chicks can be the cutest things.
Summer plummage linnets have a lot of colour
Our long-staying whooper swan. It appears to have some damage to one wing. Not enough to stop it flying around the reserve, but presumably enough to deter it from making the long trek north.
Our two spoonbills. Sometimes joined by a third, which they never seem happy about!
Onto this week, and John Walsh on Twitter took this video of the phalarope
Paul Sullivan captured the pectoral sandpiper
He took this lovely emperor dragonfly
And Ian took this photo of the phalarope
On a much smaller scale, George Polden took this photo of an unusual-looking fly. I think it is a flecked snout, a type of soldier fly. Anyone like to give a more educated answer?
Of course we are into the school holidays. Not so much of interest on the bug hunting, apart from some short-winged coneheads like this one, previously taken by Neil Smith.
Pond dipping came up with a great diving beetle and a pirate wolf spider. Quite appropriate seeing as we have a pirate treasure trail running! Photo by Lukas Jonaitis via Wikimedia Commons
Sorry to anyone who has arachnaphobia. In my defense, so do I. And the critter is really only a couple of milimetres long.
So, you are thinking of visiting? Great! And good timing too, as there are some pretty handy tides to look forward to this week. In general anything over 7 metres is considered good. 8 metres and most of the saltmarsh is covered. Looking ahead, the tide forecasts are....
So as you can see, some pretty handy ones there. Evenings look good over the weekend and the start of the week. Mornings from Monday onwards. Some are even at civilised hours, that don't involve getting out of bed at ungodly-o'clock.
One word of warning. There will be work happening on the scrapes on Tuesday and Wednesday, so there may be some disturbance then. But the birds will probably just relocate elsewhere on the reserve.
If you are visiting on Sunday, you might be interested in a guided walk by Les, one of our volunteers. His walks entitled Walkies! With Wildlife are aimed at those who may have a dog with them, but are open to all. They normally run at 10 am on the fourth Sunday of each month, but this week it leaves at 9:30 am, as some people have booked onto it who need to be finished earlier. Just meet Les at the visitor centre at that time.
Of course, you may recognise Les from the recent article about Frampton Marsh in Nature's Home magazine, which is dropping through RSPB members' doors over the next couple of weeks. A great read, all about how we make this reserve such a special place. Not a member? Well, you should visit and sign up with us! If you do, it helps support the reserve as well as all the RSPB's other work.
So, there you have it! If you are going to visit us, you can keep up to day 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.