Howdy folks! And welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy. Another gap last week as I was off on leave, but back again now with all the latest of what has been happening on the reserve. Cue the maps...

So a nice short-eared owl to start things off. Hen harriers, merlins, and the starling murmuration has got up to a decent size.

The Doncaster RSPB members group were in on the Sunday, and the long-billed dowitcher showed for a chosen few. Making it now three months that the bird has been here.

The dowitcher was showing again on the Monday. Four merlins at once must be a good count for anyone!

Sorry, no maps for Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Thursday was all a bit wild, hence the lack of sightings

Today brought in an oddity in the shape of a Cape shelduck. A South African bird, this will be an escapee from somewhere. Still interesting to see though.

Right, how about some photos?

Neil Smith got this perfect capture of the exact moment a brent goose touches the water during landing. Stunning!

Jeremy Eyeons took a portrait of this full plumage drake teal

He also got one of Frank. Frank the pheasant has five thousand fine feathers on his throat....

One of the delights of this time of year are the sunsets. Here is one caught by Mark Sargeant.

So there you have it!

Important news now. If you aren't an RSPB member (and you really should be, come chat to the lovely people in the visitor centre...) next week between Monday 3 and Sunday 9 December you can gain free entry to the reserve if you have a National Lottery ticket or scratchcard. This is due to the #ThanksToYou promotion, where we are thanking the people who have supported us by playing the lottery, from which we have received money through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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!