Howdy folks!
Time for another sightings update from Poppy...
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Sightings Blog 27 January – 2 February
Hello, hello! Welcome back to the sightings blog. Instead of a bumper edition this week, I thought it would be great to show you what has been around on the reserve over the last week and talk to you about what we have coming up on the reserve this month.
Monday 27 January:
On Monday there was plenty to be seen on the sightings board, which included some great spots from the Witham mouth! Bearded tit were back and spotted around location 1, with 3 spotted redshank seen on the wet grassland at location 2.
Rock pipit was spotted around the sea bank from location 3 and we had roughly 40 ruff on the wet grassland by the car park.
The big spots around the Witham were great-white egret, red-breasted merganser, bar-tailed godwit and grey plover.
Tuesday 28 January:
Tuesday saw the collation of our recent weekend WeBS survey at #RSPBFrampton, with 31,965 individuals of 36 species counted.
Golden plover- 14,246
Wigeon- 7,363
Lapwing- 6,685
Brent goose- 2,101
Teal- 609
Mallard- 169
Whooper swan- 102
Ruff- 66
Shelduck- 60
Avocet- 1
If you are interested in how WeBS counts are carried out or what it’s like, our warden, Toby, schedules his ‘Walk With the Warden’ events to coincide with the monthly WeBS count. This event is basically a 4-hour wander around the reserve to see fantastic sights. If you are interested, you can check out our Eventbrite page for dates and more information.
Wednesday 29 January:
Another chilly day at #RSPBFrampton saw plenty of activity on the reserve, particularly from raptors. Hen harrier was spotted over the reedbed at location 4, with peregrine and merlin spotted at location 5. Also moving around the back of the reedbed was a red kite and a rather early hunting barn owl. While out on our regular Wednesday work party, I had the privilege of watching this barn owl hunt along the dykes and along the back of the north scrape (location 6), before moving on to examine the reeds.
Overall a day filled with lots of raptors. If you too want to experience watching birds of prey hunt over the saltmarsh then we have just the event for you. Our dusk Raptor Rapture events are perfect for this. Our next event is led by our warden, Anthony, on Saturday 22 February. For more information visit our Eventbrite page.
Thursday 30 January:
More chilly weather followed on the Thursday, but that didn’t stop the birds. Around 30 dunlin were spotted at location 7, with spotted redshank still about on the reserve however, this time at location 8. Still plenty of raptors around on the reserve too, with at least 2 merlin and a hen harrier seen moving over the saltmarsh and wet grassland areas.
Friday 31 January:
Friday saw the return of the great-white egret, this time spotted from the visitor centre at location 4. In fact, the marsh harrier was also seen hanging around this area. Another star of the day was the goldcrest spotted along the hedgerow at location 9, along with a cetti’s warbler also at the same location. The spotted redshank seem to be sticking around and sticking to a favourite area. We had 3 spotted on the wet grassland at location 2.
Saturday 1 February:
Our spectacle 14,000 golden plover are still about on the reserve and looking as breath-taking as ever. Keep your eyes peeled for the #plovercane on your next visit!
Spotted redshank still around on the wet grassland at location 8. Greenshank were seen over on the reedbed at location 10. We also had some brilliant numbers of whooper swan again, with 54 counted over on the wet grassland at location 11. To add to the packed list, we also spotted a weasel around the 360 hide.
Sunday 2 February:
Sunday was #WorldWetlandsDay! Celebrating wonderful wetlands around the world, just like #RSPBFrampton.
Did you know?
To top it off, there were some great sights. We had 2 great-white egrets seen at location 12 and 2 mediterranean gull spotted at location 4. Adding to the list of mustelids spotted on the reserve this week is the stoat, spotted at location 13. Not forgetting some of our regulars, with several merlin hunting over the reserve in general and again a fantastic count of the 14,000 golden plover!