A blustery couple of days has seen far more birds (18,000+) than visitors, but for the lucky few that braved the conditions, their efforts were well and truly rewarded.
1. 'The early birder sees the swan', so goes that timeless Frampton saying that I just made up. Between 12 and 20 Whoopers are roosting with us at the moment and seeing them is as hard as counting them as they are nearly nocturnal in their arrival and departures. Early starts and those hanging on into dusk will have the best chance of seeing them.
2. After singing the Brent's praises last week, I am going to lump them all together this week. as together they make for a wonderful spectacle as they interact and move across the reserve. While Brents dominate, Canada and Greylag Geese play their part with up to 69 Pink-footed Geese also present. 2 Barnacle Geese are also out there to be found, usually in with the Canadas.
3. We estimate, with a few counts to support this, that the Frampton wintering Wigeon population could be as high as 6,000 and maybe even more! Combine this with Freiston and there could be well over 10,000 of these super smart ducks spending Christmas with us. Teal numbers, while not quite as impressive, are also on the up and we estimate about 2-3,000 at Frampton.
4. A very unseasonal Common Sandpiper was present on the 9th and 10th, though it was very flighty and only a lucky few managed to get on to it. There's a very good chance it's still around though and will make a good addition to a year list should it be re-found in a couple of weeks time.
5. The drake Scaup has relocate to the reservoir where it can usually be found snoozing with Pochard next to one of the big islands. Look for it from Reedbed Hide or the comfort of the Visitor Centre.
6. We're working hard to provide winter sustenance for farmland birds so it's great when one of our regular reports 5 Corn Buntings near to the one of the strips we've sown. They are also present at Freiston too so hopefully we'll start to see an increasing winter population across the reserves.
7. Another bird to benefit from winter feeding, though this is more directly rather than habitat based, Tree Sparrow. Up to 24 have been seen at our feeding station outside the Visitor Centre and with 14 Yellowhammers for company we're throwing down the gauntlet.... can anyone see more?
8. It looks like our regular Barn Owl from last year is getting back into its 4pm routine. While we mostly see it when locking up the Visitor Centre, plenty of visitors have seen him throughout the day. The back of the reeded and Cross Bank are all good places to look for him.
9. Hen Harriers are being recorded on a daily basis now with up to three being seen at once. You may get lucky and chance upon one but a bit of a stakeout is often required. Hopefully we'll see these and plenty more on our Christmas raptor walk. And with a potential supporting cast of Peregrine, Kestrel, Merlin, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Short-eared Owl and Barn Owl, we could be on for a fantastic afternoon.
We're a bit light on images this week so I thought I'd give you a little insight one of Frampton's special species. The Brent Goose (we mostly host the Siberian dark-bellied birds over the winter) is an expected and marvellous feast for the eyes and ears of any visit to Frampton between November and April. What you may not be aware of though, is that we are seeing the results of one of the worst breeding years on record. Scanning through the geese the other day I chanced upon Brent Goose BPB= (blue ring white 'P', blue ring white '='). I've seen it here a few times and when I popped the record in to www.geese.org I was able to see all the previous records and where it was ringed originally.
BPB= records with thanks to www.geese.org
We can see from the table that this is the 6th year its been recorded on site, meaning it has flown that 4,300+ kilometre journey from Russia to Lincolnshire at least 11 times..... nearly 50,000 km just to be at Frampton for Christmas. Unfortunately while watching this bird, it wasn't the journey that it had taken that was occupying my thoughts, but the journeys that hadn't been taken.
Out of the 257 birds, I could see no juveniles. We can usually expect young birds to make up >20% of the group but none were present... very unusual and very worrying. A quick tweet later and it seems picture is the same at a few sites across the country. 1100 and 2 juveniles at Ferrybridge in Dorset, no juveniles in a flock of 320 at Spurn and only 2 in flock of 300 at Titchwell. Has it been a disastrous year or have the juveniles not arrived yet? We won't know for sure until the end of winter but if you want to have a look for yourself then this is what you're keeping an eye out for.
Juvenile Dark-bellied Brent Goose - Geoff White
The key feature of juvenile birds (those that were born this year) are the pale fringes to the the flight feathers, which form distinct parallel lines. Check out the plain unmarked back of the adult below for a comparison.
Adult Dark-bellied Brent Goose - Neil Smith
If you are visiting over the next few months and want to help our understanding of populations then please have a look at the WWT monitoring page and submit your counts online.
That's all from us this week. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and if you can't wait 7 days to know what's going on here, keep your finger on the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves pulse by following us on Twitter and giving us a ‘like’ on Facebook. Alternatively if you enjoy taking pictures and have a Flickr account then please join our group and share your images with everyone. If you are thinking of paying a visit from near or far please do check out the tide times which can make a big difference to both numbers and variety of birds seen on the day. Si
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder