Howdy folks, and welcome back to the Frampton Marsh recent sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy!
So, last blog I put out early on Friday because I was away that night and most of this week. So we will start with last Friday. As I write this it is coming as much as a surprise to me as it will be to you. Let's see what I missed, Bob!
Looks to be some nice stuff there. A wood and curlew sandpiper combo is always a good start, and spoonbills are invariably popular.
No map for the Saturday, alas.
Looks like the wood sandpiper had vanished, and the spoonbill had relocated to Freiston. Kingfisher is interesting, we tend to get them more in autumn than now. I wonder if they might breed at the reserve in some hidden nook...
No map for Monday I'm afraid
Looks like Tuesday was a bit quiet, though was getting a bit breezy by then as I recall. This does tend to make things hide somewhat. Turtle doves are good though, especially given how elusive they have been this year.
No map for Wednesday
I got back on Thursday to the tail end of the windy weather. Definitely worth checking down the hedgerow (number 1 on the map) and at the western end of the reedbed for interesting butterflies and dragonflies.
Much calmer today, and you can see all the wildlife came back out again. Turtle doves were purring nicely at 6 pm, if you are looking for them i recommend getting here either early or late as they tend to go quieter in the middle of the day. Grasshopper warbler is rather unusual for us, so a lucky find. And we do like the odd moth (especially since this weekend are the national moth nights), with Mother Shipton definitely looking a bit odd!
OK, that was the week that was. How about the fancy photos? But of course...
Toby our warden found the male wood duck (also known as a Carolina duck) in its full finery. It might be an escapee, but you have to admit it is a cracking looking bird.
Cute chicks are always a feature of this time of year. Jeremy Eyeons captured this family of swans.
This sedge warbler looks like it had young hidden away too, as it has a beak full of food ready for them.
Jeremy also snapped this family of shovelers
The cootlings (baby coots) have proved very popular over the past couple of weeks as they come very close to the visitor centre windows. Nicola Riley got this parent and chick.
What is smaller than a chick? Well, quite a lot actually. All too often people only concentrate on the big stuff, and forget the smaller things in life. Time to put that right. Paul Sullivan took these great macro shots for example. The first is of a species of hoverfly, the second a type of soldier fly.
Mark Gosling even eshewed the insects and focused on the flowers. This close-up of a sprig of cow parsley really shows how delicate it is.
Finally, where would we be without a Neil Smith shot? Or several. Bit of a bumper haul this week, most of which are also focused on the smaller side of things.
Golden-bloomed grey longhorn beetles can be found on plant stems. Look among the longer grass in the picnic area.
The picnic area is also a good place to look for butterflies like this large skipper.
This spider is poised and ready, waiting for a meal. Meanwhile a little fly is really pushing its luck...
But we can't just have little things, so we will end on something bigger. Sort of. If you look to the right of this little egret, you will see the little fish in the air, evading being eaten. The one that got away!
So there you have it. Some really nice high tides this week, and at a sensible time too! 8:35 am on Saturday, 9:19 am on Sunday. Or if you prefer to be out in the evening, 9:05 pm on Saturday. We will be doing high tide walks at Freiston on both Saturday evening and Sunday morning, details on our events page.
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.
Finally, if you would like to give us an extra bit of support you can text to donate money to the reserve. Please text FRAM26 followed by £2, £5 or £10 (eg FRAM26£5) to 70070.
So, that is pretty much everything. I hope you all have a great week, stay safe, and I will catch you all next time!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.