Howdy folks, and welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
Well, it is fair to say that two individual dominated the sightings this week. And lots of people came to see them. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Time to turn the clock back and look at some maps.
Yes, the star of last week, the stilt sandpiper was still with us and still showing off nicely. Generally it was starting the day snoozing with the godwits on the reedbed, before moving over to North scrape. Then coming back late afternoon. This pattern wouldn't totally continue though.
Otherwise, a willow emerald damselfly was still at the pond dipping pool. And there was a good selection of supporting cast members.
Sunday was a little damp, which did drop the number of sightings rather. The sandpiper was still there though, and thankfully spent most of the afternoon on the reedbed, visible from the warm and dry of the visitor centre.
Whinchats started to show well by the old barn buildings next to the grassland reservoir. And there were some nice planes too!
Hello hello, what is this? The long-billed dowitcher was back. Or did it ever go? There was a suggestion of a view in flight on Saturday, but nothing concrete. Whatever the case, it was back and showing again now!
The stilt sandpiper became a bit more sedentary mid-week, staying put on the reedbed. Though finding no shortage of food.
The big news on Thursday was there wasn't just one willow emerald, but three. Including a mating pair. Will we have the pitter-patter of tiny willow emerald feet next year? (And yes, I know it doesn't work like that)
Everything still present and correct on Friday, ready for the weekend. We believe that is the reserve record count of spotted redshanks, by the way!
So, maybe you'd like some nice photos?
Paul Higgs got a cracking photo of a ruff. Not sure if the eye is half closed because it is protecting itself from the chance of splashes of mud, or because it was first thing in the morning and it was still sleepy!
Dales Ayes also got two very nice photos, a spoonbill and a wood sandpiper.
And Paul Sullivan captured this shot of one of the stars of the week, the long-billed dowitcher.
So there you go. 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.
So that is it from me. Hope you all have a great week, stay safe, and I'll catch you next time!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.