Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy. A double-sized bumper blog today, covering the two weeks of the festive period. So let's knuckle down, and get looking at some maps.
Yes, that dodgy Cape shelduck is still with us.
Oooh, waxwings! Always a good bird to see
Oddly, no map for 25 December. Even I don't go to work on Christmas Day! (and hats off to those that do)
The voles continue to be good value under the feeders.
Water pipit back again. Sandwich tern was a more unusual spot at the river mouth. Most will be miles away in warmer climes.
Sorry, no map for 29 December.
And waxwings back again.
For those people who do a year list, that was a pretty nice selection to get them started. Though both the dowitcher and the waxwings were somewhat elusive.
We usually get some Bewick's swans in with the whooper swans around New Years. This year proved to be no exception!
So, that is it for the sightings maps. How about some magical photos? Well, if you want magic, you need a magician. Like Merlin. See where this is going? Cue two wonderful shots by Ian Bollen.
The second one is simply fantastic, isn't it?
Alternatively, maybe ducks are your thing. Regular contributor Jeremy Eyeons has been busy on this score, with gadwall, pintail and that Cape shelduck. Maybe not a duck, but a little grebe is also a waterbird, to complete the quartet.
Another kind of wildfowl are the brent geese, which have even been grazing in big numbers on the fields next to the visitor centre (and with the Boston Stump nicely in the background), as photographed by Steve Clayton.
Steve also snapped a few of the larger black and white grazers too.
Finally, where would we be without a wader photo of some kind? Macca supplies it here, of a redshank.
So there we have it for another week. Obviously next week the visitor centre will be closed on Christmas Day. But the reserve will remain open 24/7, and the visitor centre reopens on Boxing Day (though without filled rolls until the Friday as our suppliers are shut for the holidays). 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
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.