Howdy folks!
Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh weekly sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy. So, what do we have for you this week?
Well, if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you will know we had a bit of a to-do yesterday with some little ringed plover chicks in the car park. The family is now on the reedbed, thank goodness! Very cute, but try spotting th chick in this photo. Then imagine how hard it would be if you were driving a car. A nasty accident would be a certainty!
Stuck? I'll post the answer later on.
Now, the sun is out, the temperatures are rising. Which must mean that autumn is on the way! Yes, we are starting to see increasing numbers and variety of waders returning from their breeding grounds on their southward migrations. But a picture paints a thousand words, so lets get onto the maps...
Yes, that's three kinds of sandpipers. And the garganey has reappeared after disappearing for a few weeks. This is a male in eclipse, but where is the female....?
Ooh, that is another sandpiper! And the stint, spot red and assorted other waders.
Did I forget whimbrel? We have whimbrel...
And the ruff of course!
The yellow wagtails had a youngster with them, nice to see.
Kingfishers are a tricky bird to catch up with, but as you can see have been around a bit. We do know they use the handrail of the pond dipping pool as a hunting perch.
And there you have it!
Just a reminder, this weekend is one of our fortnightly moth weekends. We'll be running the moth trap over night and seeing what we catch the following morning. Opening sessions will be outside the centre at 10 am on Saturday and Sunday. Weather permitting! It does look a little dicey, but we'll see how we go...
What? Oh yes, the plover chick. Here is the answer...
Did you spot it?
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.
I hope that little plover makes it. I'd never have seen it.