Howdy folks! And welcome back to the Frampton Marsh sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy.
A definite change in the weather this week. It started off lovely and sunny and warm. It was time to search out those thermals though at the end of the week, as temperatures started to crash. So what difference did it make to the sightings?
Well, a gannet last Sunday was certainly an unusual record for the main bosy of the reserve. You can sometimes see them passing offshore, but this young bird came in over the wetland part of the reserve for a brief look-see, before disappearing back out off again.
It was two water vole sightings in two days on the Sunday. On the Saturday right outside the visitor centre, on the Sunday in the drain by East hide. Good news for this shy and threatened creature.
Hen harriers are getting ever more noticeable at the reserve, with at least two males and an unknown number of ringtails (females and youngsters, which are rather hard to separate out in the field).
Sorry, no map for Tuesday.
And of course the long-billed dowitcher is still in its spot. Maybe we should call it Sheldon?
Sorry, no map for Thursday.
And my word, that is a yellow map! It was a rather nice sunset, hence the lurid colour. Whooper swans have been coming into the reserve to roost, 99 is a good count of those going out, done early one morning.
So, how about some lovely photos? Easily done!
Mark Sargeant got this photo of 'Hula', our resident whooper swan. Looking a bit mucky here. Maybe she'll have a wash and brush up now her friends have arrived from Iceland?
Alan Brewster got this combination shot of both the ruddy shelduck and the Egyptian geese, which have been associating with each other.
Talking of combinations... Kevin Mayhew got a great comparison picture here of the long-staying long-billed dowitcher and a snipe.
One of our regulars, Jeremy Eyeons, seems to have been rather busy. Here are three from him. A drake shoveler, a female linnet and an excited skylark.
Like the photos? Toby our warden will be running a digiscoping workshop on Saturday 3 November, at 1 pm. £15 for non-members, £12 for members. He will help you take wonderful photos with just your smart phone and a normal spotting scope. Please ask at the visitor centre to book your place.
So that is it for another 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. 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. Oh, and remember we do now sell filled rolls in the visitor centre for all your lunchtime needs. Also now, the tide tables for next year are in. Just £1 and you can plan your birdwatching trips to Frampton, Freiston, Titchwell and Snettisham for the entirety of 2019! 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!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.