Howdy folks! Welcome back to the (more or less) weekly Frampton sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy. Brr, getting a bit chilly out there, and apparently the chance of snow on Saturday. What has that been doing to the wildlife? Well, let's see...
A female goosander was an unusual sight on the reedbed on the Saturday
Sunday was the Wetlands Bird Survey (WeBS) day, hence good records of precisely how many birds were on the reserves. Plus John our site manager picked up an inland-headed snow bunting as it came over the sea bank. Some winter finches too, in the shape of siskins and redpolls. No brambling yet, but surely only a matter of time.
Guillemots at the river mouth were a treat for those brave enough to walk that far.And the Cape shelduck popped back up again, with the Canada goose flock. A little furry friend was seen under the visitor centre feeders, more on which later.
Alas, the sightings were a bit sparse on Tuesday, not enough for a map. Merlin performing well over the reedbed was the best sighting of the day.
A triple combo of merlin, hen harrier and short-eared owl proves that time spent checking out the saltmarsh can be well worth it. And a water pipit outside the reedbed hide was great stuff.
Again, great numbers of wildfowl to be seen. Bullfinches in the hedge are probably overlooked more often than not.
Sorry, no map for Friday.
Right, how about some nice photos? Well, we can do that. But we'll start with something you may well see in your garden. Oh, and by the way registrations for the Big Garden Birdwatch opened yesterday. Go on, you know you want to....
Jeremy Eyeons captured this young blackbird in the middle of dinner
And Mark Sargeant found this starling poking around the edge of the reedbed.
If you like waders, Macca could be the man for you. Here we have shots of lapwing and curlew.
Or maybe you are more a wildfowl person? Jeremy Eyeons supplying the next one, a pristine drake shoveler.
Of course, you might like the dashing excitement of the raptors. Step forward Paul Pateman, with this lovely atmospheric shot of a marsh harrier on dawn patrol.
Of course, it isn't just birds. As already mentioned above we have a short-tailed field vole that appears every so often under the visitor centre feeders. And a cute little thing it is too. Here are some shots by David Suddards.
You can tell voles apart from mice by the more rounded nose, and the smaller ears and eyes.
So there we have it for another week. 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!
Chris
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.