Frampton Marsh recent sightings: 22nd - 28th April 2017

Howdy folks! And welcome back to another edition of the Frampton Marsh recent sightings. With me, Chris the visitor guy!

Well, been a bit of a mixed week, weather wise, hasn't it? Almost wintry in parts, rather sunny in others. Though still quite chill. That has made a difference to the birds, with many summer migrants still to arrive in numbers. And even the reappearance of some winter visitors we'd thought were long gone. So, shall we dial back the time machine to last weekend and see what has been about?

Yes, after saying last week we'd seen no blue-headed wagtails, one promptly turns up. With that in mind, we haven't seen any collared pratincoles either....

A trio of littles for Sunday. Gull, stint and tern. Grasshopper warbler is good the for the site, though it only stayed the one day. The curlew sandpiper and wood sandpiper were a bit more obliging though, as you'll see. Oh, and the return of turtle doves. Well, one at least. 

Hot on the heels of the turtle dove was a cuckoo. It didn't seem to stick around though, hopefully more will follow

I had only just been saying in the office that a bearded tit hadn't been seen in ages, when one pops up. So, *ahem*, my word it is a while since we saw a glossy ibis....

Wednesday brought some choice weather in the form of hail. And a blast from the recent past as a whooper swan dropped in. We are assuming it can't have been very well come migration time, though it was flying around. Maybe it just didn't fancy the long slog north?

And fresh off the press, here's today.....

Well, looks like the cuckoo and grasshopper warbler are back again then! A different locale for the turtle dove, could it be a different one?

You will have noticed that the scaups were present throughout those maps. They have been showing really nicely there. Here is some video footage to prove it:

Paul Sullivan got this great photo of the merlin

And Jeremy Eeyons took the portrait of one of the singing sedge warblers

Finally, this hare left it a bit late to get off the saltmarsh during a recent high tide. Video by Ian Ellis.

https://twitter.com/HawkeyeEllis/status/857323477942054913

So, that's what we've got. A long bank holiday weekend, I hope to see lots of you down at the reserve. If the weather is anywhere near half decent, I will have a go at running the moth trap for the first time Saturday night, with the trap opening at 10 am on Sunday.

Let me also plug some new walks we are doing. Once a month Toby the warden does his Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) count. You could join him for a personal tour. Plenty of time to chat about the reserve, birds, and with his expertise you are almost bound to come across something special. £25 per person (RSPB members 20% off), with places strictly limited and only available by prior booking a decent way in advance. The next one is on Saturday 13 May, phone us on 01205 724678 if you are interested.

Remember, you can see the daily sightings sheet (plus any other exciting news) on our Twitter feed. If you use Twitter yourself, please mention us (@RSPBNorfolkLinc) and use the hashtag #RSPBframpton if mentioning your sightings. Or #RSPBfreiston if you are there. If you have photos (or indeed artwork, any sketchers or painters amongst us?) we'd love to see those too. You can put them on our Flickr page, or on our Facebook page.

So there you have it. I hope you all have a great week of birdwatching. Stay safe, and I will catch you next time.