Howdy folks! And welcome back to another edition of the Frampton Marsh recent sightings. With me, Chris the visitor guy.
And well, we've had some excitement here on the reserve over the past week. So it is time to dial the time machine in, and zoom back to last weekend for the maps.
Well, that all looks pretty reasonable. Why the fuss? Hang on a sec....
Yes, that is a common crane flying right over the reserve. Not that John the site manager appears to believe me! Lots of other good stuff around too.
The crane was also around early on Monday. Apparently it spent a little while walking around the fields to the south of the road before taking off, then flying away southwards. No pictures alas.
Oh, and good news for flower lovers. out bee orchids have started to bloom. Just one or two yet, but hopefully more to come. Talking of more to come.....
Double bubble on Tuesday. Firstly with a short-staying red-necked phalarope. But more excitingly with Frampton's first ever cattle egrets. These have been long overdue, and we finally got not one but two! Bit like buses, you wait ages.... You can see a little video of one of them here.
The egrets were still with us on the Wednesday, plus the other usual good stuff. A daytime barn owl was a special treat for those that were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Wednesday was also a pond dipping day, with great diving beetle larvae being the pick of the catch.
Yes, the cattle egrets were still with us on the Thursday too. Though how easy it is to see them depends on where the cows are. The vegetation in the fields is quite tall (a lovely display of buttercups) and the egrets can get hidden behind it.
Oh, it is also worth mentioning the snipe down at the sea bank car park. i was down there on Thursday night and one was doing the 'drumming' display flight right overhead. a wonderful sound, go listen!
And there you have it!
Right, last week was a bit sparse on the photos. Shall we can see what we can do this week. Firstly with this egret comparison shot by David Suddards. Two cattle egrets and one little. It really helps you spot the differences in the field.
The little egrets themselves have been good value, with large numbers around the reserve (photo by Neil Smith)
Of course, if you want stunning, you can't go better than one of our ruff... (photo by 'Macca' via Flickr group)
Or maybe a yellow wagtail (photo by Ian Bollen via Flickr group)
Mind you, it is at this point of the year where there are cuties to be spotted. Such as goslings (photo by Neil Smith)
and cygnets (photo by 'andyno43' via Flickr group)
Of course, not all our wildlife is so cute. I imagine rather less readers would want to cuddle this character. Though still beautiful in a different way
Photo by Ian Bollen via Flickr group
How about some videos? Well, we have garganey by Jack Dawson, cute avocet chicks by Toby and a greenshank by Jack Dawson
Right, and now a response to a request. We've had a few people comment about how dry South scrape is. One visitor remembered Toby did a blog post a couple of years ago, explaining why we dry out a different scrape in turn each year, then reflood them in the autumn. They also asked if I could include a link to this to refresh their (and everyone else's) memory. Happy to oblige! You can click this sentence to go to the blog post.
Now, if all of this has whetted your appetite and you were wanting to visit us, a warning about the end of the week. We will be doing some work on upgrading our toilets, to make them a bit more pleasant. So there will be some disruption on Thursday at the least. The loos will remain open, but anyone requiring the accessible loo may have to kick the work party out first!
If you are going to visit us, you can keep up to day 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.
This pretty much wraps up another edition of the sightings blog. I hope you all have a great week, take care, have fun, and I will catch you next time.
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.