Howdy folks! Welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
Rather nice weather out there are the moment. Hot, sunny days. But a bit of a breeze to cool things down. This does mean things can get a little quiet on the sightings front. But hey, autumn migration is just around the corner, and last week's phalaropes show you never know what might happen. So, lets look at the week that was:
Alas no map for Saturday. Here is Sunday though:
Our colleagues over at Titchwell Marsh have been very excited because they had their first sighting of Cetti's warbler since March. It seems that Beast from the East may have devastated them over there. For some reason ours seem to have fared better.
Summer does bring some nice insects to the fore. Burnet moths flit amongst the grass and dragonflies such as the black-tailed skimmers zoom along the paths. A wasp beetle was a nice sighting (which didn't make it onto the board) at the new bee hotel. This is however pretty much the end of the bee orchid season, with only a few left.
Sorry, no map for Tuesday
So, plenty of waders on the scrapes, especially as the tides are getting up (and at a more civilised hour!).
Nine Egyptian geese might be a reserve record! More male ruffs are appearing again, presumably on passage back from breeding grounds. Or else coming out of cover now the avocets are not quite so paranoid and belligerent towards anything that moves!
The green sandpiper count seems to be going up, though it is tricky to work out precisely how many there are. Hobbys are being seen more regularly over the reserve now the number of dragonflies is picking up.
So, those are the maps. How about some nice photos? Well, actually we will start with this video of the Egyptian geese, courtesy of Ian Ellis.
Ian Hurst found this young Roesel's bush cricket out on the paths. Their high-pitched singing really is one of the sounds of summer for us
It has been a bit quiet on the Flickr site (feel free to add your own photos, link lower down). But luckily the redoubtable Neil Smith has been out and about. Strap in for some good ones. First of all, consider this shot of a swift. Not only would it be moving fast, but to get it at eye level and looking like this.... wow!
Here comes a spoonbill!
Not that everyone seems happy to see it. The grey heron here seems to have taken umbrage and is trying to stare it out!
Other birds wade too. Such as avocets. Here are a couple of adults
And a couple of youngsters. Getting bigger every day...
Other youngsters can be seen too, such as this shoveler family.
Just to finish up, a couple of mammal shots. This brown hare is posing for the camera.
But then it seemed to go a little shy...
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.
I hope you all have a great week, stay safe, and I will catch you all next time!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.