Recent sightings 14 - 22 October 2015

Hello!

You may have noticed a drop off in the recent sightings blogs recently. Toby who normally does them has been snowed under with work over the past few weeks. So I thought I'd better do a quick catch up.

Let's start at Freiston Shore, rather than at Frampton Marsh. Turns out that 14 October was a bit of a red letter day. It started off with a bit of sea watching in the morning revealling a Slavonian grebe offshore. Then in the afternoon our conservation intern was doing some practical work when he flushed a corncrake! Of course it promptly dived back into cover and didn't reappear, but what a record! Now for anyone else, that'd be enough. But Anthony promptly went on to find a yellow-browed warbler too. What a star!

There were four more Slavonian grebes seen offshore on 16 October, plus four Arctic skuas. A ring ouzel was in the trees by the education buildings on 18 October and a firecrest was on site the same day too.

Right, time to shift to Frampton Marsh.

Parties of lesser redpoll have been about in the hedgerow near to the visitor centre a few over the last week and a bit, most noticeably on 14 and 22 October. A male brambling on 19 October was the first of the winter, hopefully many more to come! A Lapland bunting was reported on 21 October

19 October was a pretty good day for other sightings too. A great grey shrike was on the crossbank, and a woodcock was flushed from the hedgerow. Alas, because it wasn't on "managed wetland habitat" we can't count it for our entry into this year's "Golden Welly" competition, the annual scrap between RSPB reserves to see who has the biggest variety of waders. So do keep your eyes peeled for one. Or alternatively a pectoral sandpiper, purple sandpiper or grey phalarope. Could be a little prize in it for you if you find a (verified) one.... A single avocet remains on the reedbed, and greenshank are sometimes seen on the wet grassland under the seabank. The reservoir is still picking up green sandpipers too.

The area at the old car park, near to the sea bank, has held up to 2 bearded tits, up to 17 October. A Cetti's warbler has been there too, though of late has been heard more in the reedbed area near to the pond dipping pool. Other long stayers include the singleton barnacle and pink-footed goose, who mostly hang out with the mixed Canada and greylag flock on or around the reedbed. You might also see some really odd looking birds with these, a couple of Canada x greylag hybrids.

Sticking with waterfowl, my word there are a lot of wigeon about. Definitely the bird of the moment, with easily a couple of thousand on the wet grassland. A couple of whooper swans have been out there too, forming a threesome with a lone mute swan. And a first winter scaup has been on the reedbed since 21 October.

On the bird of prey front, merlins have been regular across the site, as have marsh harriers, peregrines, kestrels and sparrowhawks. There have been sightings of both ringtailed and male hen harriers out over the saltmarsh, though a good scope is often required. With the clocks about the change and the nights drawing in, it will be interesting to see if last year's 4 o'clock barn owl makes a reappearance. It was very regular outside the visitor centre at that time.

So here is a quick map showing where things are likely to be found.

Moving away from birds, there are still clumps of sea aster to be found. Pinky-purple flowers with a yellow centre, looking rather like a Michaelmas daisy. On still days you can even find sea aster mining bees amongst them, a scarce UK species. Pretty small for a bee, and looking more black and white than black and yellow.

One of our regular visitors managed to grab this picture of a bat on 20 October. Maybe getting ready for Halloween? From the size of it, we think it is a noctule bat. And sticking with mammals, weasels have been showing regularly outside the visitor centre, with stoats elsewhere across the site.

Well, that's about it. Sorry my version of the news isn't as pretty as Toby's. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon! Remember to follow us on Twitter for all the most up to date news, including (hopefully) daily sightings maps of what has been about.