Well, we'll start off the week's round-up with some really exciting news of a good rarity.

A cracking rare bird was seen by one of our regular visitors at Freiston Shore on Friday afternoon. They are often down in the middle of the day as they work shifts at the local hospital. What is it? Well, it is a big building with patients, but that isn't important right now...

No, what is important is the identity…

Hello again, and welcome once more to the re-energised Frampton weekly sightings. Here to fill you in on what is about for your weekend birding pleasure. Let's start with the sightings maps

Today (Friday 8 April)

As you can see, quite a bit about. The Mediterranean gulls have at long last settled down somewhat. You can get distant views from the visitor centre or closer ones from the reedbed hide. There are two…

It is time for another blog post from Sarah

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The results from the annual Big Garden Birdwatch 2016 are in. This is an annual event the RSPB put on to measure the condition of bird species in the UK. It began back in 1979 as an activity for children to do in the winter in their back gardens. Since then it has grown massively and even invites the adults to join in the fun! The aim is for everyone…

Oooh yikes, we've not had one of these for a while, have we? I've been off on leave and then super busy with the Easter preparations. But hopefully I'll try to do them from now on. Not the all-singing -all-dancing Toby version though. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts

(You do get to spot the cultural reference though!)

Right, lets see what we have. Well, we will start with today and work back a bit…

It is time for another blog post by Sarah, our visitor experience intern:

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As you take a walk round the reserve you may have noticed a spring visitor has returned along the edges of the paths. This is Tussilago farfara or Coltsfoot as most people call it. You can easily spot them; they have bright yellow flowers that look similar to dandelions, though they often appear just before them…

 In a new feature, our conservation intern Luke will be writing a regular blog. Here we go with part 1!

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Part 1: On arriving

 My name’s Luke Wilkinson and I’m a conservation intern with the RSPB in eastern England. I like nature, guitars, and a good cup of tea.

Chugging east on the train from Manchester, I had only a vague idea of what would greet me when…

Sarah is back again with another blog post. This time about the Easter events. She writes...

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The time is almost upon us again, and we have some fantastic events for you this Easter holiday. Starting off with some egg-cellent Easter egg hunts. Here’s a quick round up.

First up is the classic Easter egg hunt. Follow the trail and cryptic clues, unscramble the letters and reveal…

Sarah, our visitor experience intern writes:

"On Sunday at Frampton Marsh we received quite an unexpected visitor. A woodcock was found dazed after it crashed into a pane of glass, probably confused by the reflections. To give it a little time to recover we put it in the finest suite available. An empty Pipers crisps box (tastiest crisps in Lincolnshire!) in the storage cupboard. This gave it a few hours to recover…

As you might remember in the last blog post, we met Sarah the new visitor experience intern. Well now it is time to meet Luke, the conservation intern. Over to you Luke...

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Hello all,

My name’s Luke Wilkinson and I’ve just started a conservation internship with the RSPB in eastern England. From March to September I’ll be living and working on Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire, before…

We have a couple of new faces here at the reserve. Our lovely two new interns, Luke and Sarah. Both of them will be working with the team for 6 months, Luke on the conservation side of things, Sarah on the visitor aspects.

To introduce them, we will be getting each of them to say a few words about themselves. We'll start with Sarah.

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Hello!

Just a quick introduction. My name’s Sarah, I…

Following on from a successful and sold out Raptor Ramble last year, we will be starting this year’s Warden Walks with an introduction to bird song on Saturday the 19th.

Our summer migrants aren’t back yet so it’s a great time to get out and learn about our resident birds. Robin, blackbird, wren and greenfinch are among the regulars at Frampton that will also be familiar garden birds. Throw in a few farmland treats…

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. An irksome combination of days off and the website playing silly beggars meant I couldn't get them on. So it is catch-up time.

Right, first up, what has been about today?

Edit: a Cetti's warbler was in the reeds by the seabank car park.

The barn owl was giving a wonderful display. Also of note have been the male goldeneye, now doing the whole showy mating display to…

Oooh, what a lovely day! Nice to see so many coming to take advantage of it too. Right, sightings map...

Also a nice pair of stonechats at Freiston

A frosty start to the day, with a scattering of snow. Still, the sun came out and all was lovely (if a tad chilly)!

Hello! It is a double helping of sightings today from over the weekend. First up, Saturday.

Plus, at Freiston Shore there were some goodies offshore in the form of a great northern diver, plus guillemots and red-breasted merganser.

So, onto today:

A merlin feeding on the reedbed caused much discussion about its identity. And a lapwing grew very confident and came within inches of the visitor centre, giving some…

Here are today's sightings and they pretty much sum up the week. Loads of wildfowl across the reserve and birds of prey on the prowl if you're in the right place at the right time. The spotted redshanks and rock pipits have been faithful to their respective spots all week while the only thing really missing is/are the Slavonian grebes down at Tabs Head which I'll be looking for tomorrow. The drake scaup and 'tuftchard…

Roads Farm

• 3 Spotted redshank
• 20 Ruff
• 3 Rock pipit

Reedbed

• drake scaup
• Avocet
• Tuftchard
• 71 Pochard
• Sparrowhawk
• Barn owl at reserve entrance

Marsh Farm

• 208 Pink-footed geese
• 4,000 Golden plover
• 2,500 Wigeon

Saltmarsh

• 5 Rock pipit
• 2 Marsh harrier

With our new system in place, we are posting more regular sightings. Is this a preferred use of recent sightings or would you like to see a round…

Full to bursting with birds once more. A raptor spectacular over the saltmarsh in the afternoon with barn owl, male hen harrier and marsh harrier all together in one binocular view! 

Thank you for the feedback on the writing by one of our regular readers. There was a misunderstanding that the it was hard to read but we think you meant the writing wasn't big enough? Hope this is better. If you click on the image it…

Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday. The high winds meant everything kept a low profile.

Still relatively quiet today. The bittern took a stroll over to Freiston, then came back again

After a blank day on Friday, the bittern popped up again on the reedbed. This is probably due to more eyes out and about rather than anything. It was pretty quiet on Friday so hopefully a busy Sunday will get it seen again. 

It's the right time of year for birds of prey to be on the move and a red kite over the reserve was, although expected, a very nice bird to see. 

Birds birds BIRDS!! 

Another cracking day on the reserve. Habitats are looking good, water is going to the right places thanks to Big Blue, and best of all there are loads and loads of birds. Did a quick tally for the board of some of our most numerous species. Incredible to think that in 2007 the reserve was just fields and none of these birds were here.

 

It's not all about making sure we have some quality habitats though, we need to…

Here are today's sightings from Frampton. Bird of the day was a bittern that few over the reedbed at lunchtime and was also seen later on in the afternoon. This is the 70 species to be seen from inside the visitor centre this year. If you know of any other visitor centre's that would be up for a friendly birding year listing challenge then feel free to slap a proverbial gauntlet across their chops on our behalf :)…

Today was the first time we've road tested our new and improved pump, and what a timely day to do it on. It is World Wetlands Day, a day to acknowledge and celebrate all that wetlands have to offer around the globe. Here at Frampton and Freiston our wetlands provide many benefits for wildlife, but our our saltmarsh and realignment are also important to the local communities as they help protect the coastline against…