Frampton Marsh recent sightings: 6 - 12 January 2018

Hello and welcome to the weekly sightings blog. Hopefully enough of a whistle wetter to entice you down for a leg stretch over the weekend or sometime next week. 

I'll give you the usual breakdown of the weeks highlights and what to look for next week but if you want to get a feel for what to expect on a visit, Steve's blog about his visit on Sunday morning is well worth a read.

So here are your sightings maps from the week, 6, 8, 11 and 12 January and you can find this weeks Weekly Digest (a round up of all reserve related tweets) on Twitter here. Have also done 2 sightings vlogs. The first is the Weatherman approach while the second is distraction free and effectively me talking while pointing at a map. If you are on Twitter, please let us know if these vlogs work for you, and if you're not on twitter then do they work for you on here or do you just want the words and pictures?

As I'm sure you know, it's been a pretty murky week. Visibility has been pretty poor with several days of dense fog making the audible spectacle even more impressive. The avian weather bombs that are the Plovercane and Wigeonado were both going strong this week. Brief estimates put us near 6,000 for the former and 4,500 for the latter. A swirling, whirring, whistling mass of 11,000 birds!! 

 
Canada geese

The car park field is now getting pretty wet and that's bringing birds in good number to the car park. Even better, the tweaks we've done mean they come in super close. The Canada geese above are very comfortable with people and that makes any smaller species, teal, wigeon, lapwing, curlew and many more relaxed in their company. These big flocks of geese are always worth a look through on arrival just to see what's hidden away.

 
Dark-bellied brent geese

The Canada geese associate in quite loose flocks meaning smaller birds can get in among them. Brents however, feed in a much denser clump than their larger cousins meaning smaller species are best looked for on the fringes. Patience scanning a brent flock may turn up a pale-bellied bird or an American black brant. 

 
Whooper swan - Steve Clayton

The whooper swans are now a firm fixture of a winters visit to Frampton. While they are most often seen in the fields to the south during the day or coming in to roost at dusk, you may get as lucky as Steve. They will pop onto the reserve during the day for a drink and a wash. Unfortunately this could be any time or anywhere. Listen out for the 'whooping' call as this tells you they are on the move.

 
Wigeon - Neil Smith

 
Golden plover - Neil Smith

  
Lapwing - Neil Smith

We talk up the numbers of birds here as it is a spectacular sight to see but there is also pleasure in getting some up close views with the individuals. Good fieldwork and perseverance will put you in the right place to get views as good as Neil's.

 
Meadow pipit - Richard Bailey

We tend to concentrate on the larger birds around in the winter, mainly because they're easier to see and easier to identify. This means the more subtle and smaller birds don't get as much of a look in. Richard has taken this great shot of a meadow pipit to dispel the little brown job myth. Pink legs, chunky chest streaks, subtle green mantle hues and creamy feather fringing show that these birds have a lot more going for them, especially when you see them as clearly as this. Look out for them on the sea bank and around the hides. Other good brown un's to appreciate are reed bunting, linnet, skylark and the sparrows at the Visitor Centre feeders.

 
Black-necked grebe and stonechat

Apologies for the terrible photo but this is the only shot of the black-necked grebe we have. It turned up on the reedbed and only stayed for a day. Hopefully we'll get a super duper one in summer as they look a little more splendid than this black and white dude.

  
Stonechat - Richard Bailey

Obviously for such a bird as tidy as a stonechat, we can't leave you with a couple of terrible photographs. Fortunately Richard has bailed me out and got another stunner on the sunflowers. These are best looked for along the northern end of the reedbed while you're listening out for bearded tit.

 
Sunrise in reeds - Richard Bailey

That's all from us this week. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and if you can't wait 7 days to know what's going on here, keep your finger on the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves pulse by following us on Twitter and giving us a ‘like’ on Facebook. Alternatively if you enjoy taking pictures and have a Flickr account then please join our group and share your images with everyone. If you are thinking of paying a visit from near or far, firstly have a look at the weather and please do check out the tide times which can make a big difference to both numbers and variety of birds seen on the day.