Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy.
OK, getting this out on a Friday this week, as the weather looks lovely, the winds are from the south, and so this could be a good time for an influx of both summer migrants and also birdwatchers. What is there to be seen? Well, we will let the maps say it all...
A pretty full board there, and a good variety too. Mostly winter migrants in the mix, but....
...Sunday brought in the first Mediterranean gull and the first whimbrel of the year. There was also an unconfirmed report of ring ouzel...
...which got confirmed the following day, with a nice male near the 'berry trail' (which is closing on Monday, last chance to go look). Also of interest was the green-winged teal which had been loitering over at Freiston, but had evidently decided it wasn't getting enough attention over there, and so moved to Frampton.
The teal and the dowitcher were still showing on Tuesday, and the spring godwit flock was growing. We also had the first swallow of the year.
Likewise on Wednesday, with whooper swans still being on the scrapes, though numbers were dropping as small parties headed off north.
Likewise on Thursday. The muntjac deer needed rescuing from mud in the reservoir where it was stuck.
Friday saw the wind move round to the south, and what looked to be some determined movement by the whooper swans. Is this it for the year? We wait to see if any are seen over the weekend...
OK, those are the sightings maps. Last week I promised you more photos. Well luckily regular contributor Jeremy Eyeons has been busy. And boy does he have a nice selection for us...
These dunlin are still in winter colours, but this black-tailed godwit is looking good with almost full summer plummage
This skylark appears to be full of the joys of spring too.
While these coltsfoot are already finishing flowering and starting to turn into seed heads.
Talking of flowers, the blackthorn blossom is out. This male house sparrow is appears to be picking some, maybe a nice bouquet for his missus?
And here she is, in a photo by another regular, Mark Sargeant. Mark also caught up with the long staying long-billed dowitcher, which has been here over seven months now.
A rather more common wader at the reserve are avocets. Steve Nikols got this lovely flight shot
And to finish with, a couple of pictures from Neil Smith. A displaying lapwing, and a glorious great crested grebe.
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.
All the best, take care, and I will catch you next time!
Chris