Howdy folks! And welcome to another edition of the Frampton Marsh recent sightings. With me, Chris the visitor guy.
So, what do we have in store for you this week?
Well, as you may remember last week we finished on saying we needed a bigger sightings sheet (with a meme from a certain film about a shark). Well, it continued in much the same vein...
Yes, the dowitcher was still with us, and I even got to see it! Plus bearded tits and an osprey flew over. All as i arrived to open up the reserve. That was a fun five minutes! As you can see from the map, some quality other stuff too, including a slightly lost young gannet.
The bearded tits even posed for visitor Christine Booth, who took this photo:
Sunday wasn't quite so good, but not far off
The dowitcher even briefly came onto the reedbed, allowing it to be added to the visitor centre list. Which is quite important, as we have a little bit of a friendly rivalry with our friends over at Strumpshaw Fen as to who can see most from our respective centres. They are in the lead, so this was quite valuable! Of course, it did promptly disappear after doing so. Typical! The group of bearded tits showed wel, and in good numbers with at least 7 being seen.
The dowitcher reappeared towards the end of Monday. Merlins have been coming regularly to the 'reedbed tree', as you might see also from Saturday. A female often gave cracking views, but there is a male around too.
Quite a quiet day for sightings. This was the last time the dowitcher was seen.
Yes, the merlins and bearded tits continued to show well on Thursday.
So, at least one bearded tit is still about. Jack snipe are being seen in front of the visitor centre (but beware of common snipe), the merlins still like the tree and we are starting to see regular bramblings.
Ah yes, the snipe. There has been a bit of confusion over how to tell if you are looking at a common or a jack snipe. Let's clear that up with a couple of photos:
Right, this is a snipe. See the long bill, approx equal to the distance from the head to the top of the legs. Two brown lines go over the head, with a central white line between them. Compare this to a jack snipe...
Squatter, dumpier, with a shorter bill (about 2/3 the distance from the head to the legs). Also see on the head, there is one single big brown strip running down the middle of the head, plus a brown 'eyebrow'. Look also for the prominent yellow stripes down the back.
Hopefully this will help!
Finally, if anyone fancies getting up early, there are some great tides over the next few days. Remember, generally anything over 8 metres in height is big, and will cover most of the Frampton saltmarsh. So....
Saturday - 5:46 am, 7.65 m
Sunday - 6:30 am, 8.08 m
Monday - 7:15 am, 8.35 m
Tuesday - 8:00 am, 8.43 m
Wednesday - 8:45 am, 8.26 m
Thursday - 9:31 am, 7.86 m
That is a great run of morning tides, with any luck it will bring a lot of birds in. Maybe see you in the 360 hide, or out on the seabank.
So that is it from me this week. Good birding, take care, and I will catch you all next week!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.