Frampton Marsh recent sightings: 2 - 8 February 2019

Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy.

Phew, all a bit wild and windy this morning as I write this. The wind is whipping across the marsh. Yet there are still good things to be seen. Cue the maps....

So the dowitcher is still here, and the water pipit was seen. And the whooper swans are still coming in to roost.

Same as Saturday, plus extras. Like the cape shelduck, still loitering around with us.

Alas, no map for Monday.

Not windy on the Tuesday, rather still in fact. Which is why the bearded tits popped up in the reedbed. Will they stay for the summer? We hope so! The whoopers came in after I'd taken this photo, about 90 of them.

Oops! I made a bit of a boo-boo on Wednesday. I definitely took a photo of the board, but think I accidentally deleted it before managing to tweet it out. Yes, I'm useless! Luckily I do have this shot of the sightings list inside the centre to give you a taste of what was about. Plus the 90 whoopers coming in to roost, and a barn owl hunting next to the car park.

Back to the proper board on Thursday...

And ready for the weekend, the dowitcher has been showing again!

So, what do we have for you in the way of photos this week?

Well, we will start at the feeders, often a source of some good close-ups. Such as this greenfinch, taken by Akos Benei

Also the starling and the male reed bunting, taken by Mark Sargeant

Regular contributor Jeremy Eyeons has been busy again. This time with flying whooper swans, a drake shoveler and a cheeky little blue tit.

Dawn Price has sent us this ruffled ruff

And it is not March yet, so this hare wasn't feeling particularly mad yet, allowing Macca to take its portrait.

Last but by no means least, Neil Smith has been out and about and come up with his usual array of stunning shots. Wigeon and teal performing well!

If you look at photos like these and wish you could take them too, we have a Improve Your Photography course on 24 February. Follow this link to secure your place. Whilst we are talking about events, we also have a special bird of prey event on 17 February, as our warden will take you out to try to spot as many different raptors and owls as possible, then have a nice cuppa to warm up again after. Tickets for that can be found here.

So there you have it! 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