Howdy folks, and welcome back to the Frampton Marsh sightings blog. With me, Chris the visitor guy.
No blog last week as I was away for the day, then busy in the evening with a bat event. Lincs Bat Group kindly came over and we put on a great show. Five species of bat (pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, Nathusius' pipistrelle, Daubenton's and noctule), plus four planets (Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn).
Anyway, enough about that. You want to know what has been seen in the past two weeks, don't you? Cue the maps.. Though we will have to start on Monday 6 August, as we don't appear to have any for the weekend.
The autumn return of the wheatears has started...
Nice to have a sighting of clouded yellow, they have been somewhat sparse this year on the reserves.
Nice also to have tree sparrows coming back to the feeders, after a bit of an absence.
A red underwing moth was an unexpected encounter in the centre loos. And a juvenile water rail was giving close views from the 360 hide.
A pectoral sandpiper was a lucky find on the scrapes. Alas it was a one-day special. More good planes over, with a B-25 Mitchell and a Hurricane.
Some big high tides were really bringing in the waders, with reedbed covered in godwits plus other bits and bibs.
Yes, that's quite a few birds... Some of which only hung around in the morning. What is that saying about early birds?
High tide was dropping, but still bringing in good numbers. Even with the rain.
And for birdfair weekend, we have a full sightings board. Only an hour from the fair... Oh, and what may well be the first reserve record of willow emerald damselfly!
So, about now is time for some of your photos.
Spoonbills are notorious for spending large portions of their day asleep. But Paul Higgs got his one preening
And Dale Ayres got this one (or is it the same one?) in flight
Paul also captured this young little ringed plover. Superb detail!
And these snipe
The snipe have been showing so well I may have to start doing 'snipe photo of the week'!
Paul also found this black-tailed godwit that had been probing very deep into the mud. Anyone got a napkin?
Sticking with waders, time for some shots from Jeremy Eyeons. Here we have black-tailed godwit, dunlin and wood sandpiper
While Dale shows without doubt that this is indeed a black-tailed godwit
Finally, a picture of the willow emerald damselfly. I am reliably informed the way it holds its wings is a key feature. Diagonally, not down the body like most damselflies.
And there we have it!
Hope you all have a great week. If you are at Birdfair watch out for me wandering around. Stay safe, good birding, and I'll catch you next time!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.