And we've done it again! Once more we've added another new species to the Frampton bird list, courtesy of our sharp eyed conservation intern Georgie. While undertaking one of the 4 wintering passerine transects out on the Frampton saltmarsh, Georgie picked up a hooded crow heading inland. Unfortunately it didn't drop down and only our assistant warden Simon was the other lucky observer. It was a pretty productive…

Well, maybe not literally! But there was an unusual sighting yesterday, out on the reserve.

During a bird survey out on the salt marshes, Simon (our assistant warden) and George (our conservation intern) spotted a crow. OK, nothing unusual about that, we see quite a few. But this wasn't your run-of-the-mill ordinary crow. This was a hooded crow, their more northerly cousin. Whilst our normal crows are jet black, hooded…

On Sunday we had our spooktacular family funday where we had a variety of Halloween themed crafts and activities to do. There was face painting, badge making, fabulous flapping bat bracelets, spooky spiders, marvellous masks and pine cone bird feeders. Some of the staff dressed up for the occasion in scary outfits and there were carved pumpkins on display outside our visitor centre. We had a good number of families through…

With no headline grabbing birds this week it was down to single day to be the highlight, and what a day it was. The 23rd saw myself, site manager John and RSPB living legend Norman Sills (he MADE RSPB Titchwell!!) out on the scrapes as we discussed, if you can believe it, how to make Frampton even better. We were wandering around North Scrape in quite a brisk wind, hearing the chatter of several thousand black-tailed …

Well it’s just over a week until Halloween and here at Frampton Marsh we’re really getting our spook on!! Throughout the half-term week we’ve got our Halloween treasure trail running around the reed bed. Come and pick up an entry sheet from the visitor centre and see if you can solve the fiendish clues to win a prize. Remember to watch out for the Shuck, Frampton’s very own haunted hound! The trail is suitable for children…

Every month, across the country, there is a count of all the wetland birds. Called the WeBS count (a cookie if you can work out why), this is a very useful gauge of how our wetland species are doing. The count is done on the morning of a hide tide, just like we've had.

Any my, what a count it was. Well over 5500 black-tailed godwits, a reserve record! Wigeon numbered over 1400 as did knot. And another 1000 golden…

So we'll start where we left off last week and that's with the incredible sea watching that was to be had at Freiston over the weekend. It started on Thursday morning when our site manager John had one of those birding premonitions that you only get when you know your reserve like the back of your hand. The weather had been building for a few days and with a brisk north easterly breeze in the air he set the ball rolling…

The UK tree sparrow population has plummeted an estimated 93% between 1970 and 2008. Recent surveys are encouraging suggesting numbers are increasing but they are still very low from what they used to be. The main populations are found across the midlands, southern and eastern england. Tree sparrows are a bit smaller than house sparrows and have a brown head instead of a grey one.

While doing the first of this year’s…

....have no place whatsoever on the reserve next Monday night.

Starting off a series of talks, to be held in the visitor centre on Monday nights over the winter, we have 'Nasties of Nature'. A look at the less pleasant side of nature. Shudder at stories of things that sting. Take fright at things that bite. And discover creatures whose eating habits would make a ghoul feel queasy. We'll also meet some creatures who are…

And so to a new week and a distinct winter feel to the birds on Thursday as we had our first whooper swans (10 from Frampton and 3 from Freiston), barnacle geese (13 over Frampton) and redwing (small parties overhead throughout the day). The latter was a smidge of what was happening across the country as a huge arrival of redwings took place. My colleague Steve had over 33 THOUSAND pass overhead in four hours at our HQ…

Firstly a quick apology for not getting this out yesterday. 3/4 of the way through the blog and my computer signs me out so I can't save it. Rather than throwing said computer out the window I thought better of it and decided to get in the office early and get it done, and here we are. 

So last week you may have been relieved to see waders not getting the glitz and glamour of the top liners...... no such luck this…

On Tuesday we had a first for the reserve in the form of a Eurasian harvest mouse. It was spotted behind the east hide by a keen eyed visitor. These cute little rodents are generally found in fields of cereal crops and in reed beds, hedgerows and other tall vegetation. They are the smallest European rodent weighing as little as 4 grams! Their feet are quite large and are adapted for climbing with a large outermost toe…

One of the great things about working at a site like Frampton can be the variety of birds. Particularly of wading birds. Being right next to The Wash, with its acres of mud flats, means that we get more than our fair share of waders. indeed, I might be bold enough to say that we are the best site for waders in the entire RSPB!

Every year there is a little competition between RSPB reserves, as to who can spot the most wader…

Crikey, where to start... this week has been much less straight forward than last week. It all started with a tweet from an occasional regular letting me know about a Temminck's stint from the 360 Hide on the evening of the 21st. Unfortunately, as is often the case here, there were only a few birders in the hides so not many could enjoy it, and as it only showed briefly the following morning not many visitors were able…

On the morning of the 24th Scott Bailey was enjoying the views from our reedbed hide when he saw this pair of birds.....

Grebe sp. and Little Grebe - Scott Bailey 

Understandably he got very excited and assumed the birds were the same species. After a quick look through the books the differences were noted and he correctly identified the smaller of the two as a Little Grebe, but what was the other? 

Scott has only seen…

You may remember that back in July I talked about the Nature for Farming award which is run by the RSPB every year and invites entries from wildlife-friendly farmers across the country. Nicholas Watts from Vine House Farm in Lincolnshire was our regional winner and one of eight finalists up for the award.

A tree sparrow, just one of the species Mr Watts has been helping on his farm - Image by Neil Smith

Well I am pleased…

Today we have a blog from Georgie, our new Conservation Intern, about her first couple of weeks here:

I have recently become the newest team member of Frampton and Freiston Shore reserves after a busy summer as a Conservation Intern at Titchwell Reserve I have moved to the other side of the wash (the best side I am assured) for 6 months. I am looking forward to a fabulous winter here and have already seen and been involved…

Well last saturday we had our Giving Nature a Home day when we had various activities all related to how you can help wildlife in your back garden. Jimmy who's one of our volunteers and looks after our wildlife garden was on hand to give advice about what plants are good to grow to help wildlife and simple things you can do such as leaving patches of grass to grow longer to benefit insects. We also had build your own…

Well it seems that Friday the 13th is indeed an unlucky day, well for most at least. A dotterel was found before our doors opened on Friday morning and despite some excellent views for the lucky two initial observers, it disappeared into the long grass at Marsh Farm and wasn't seen again despite a good observer presence. Although annual in small groups in the county during spring, dotterel is a scarcer find in the autumn…

If you follow the bird reports or the local bird club sightings, you may be forgiven for thinking it's been quite a quiet week at Frampton and Freiston, but having been out and about there's been so much going on. Unfortunately last weeks pectoral sandpiper didn't make it into it's second weekend and while being present on the 6th, the reservoir at Freiston was eerily quiet on the Saturday.

Waders remained…

Today definitely has an autumnal feel. Walking around the reedbed trail this morning taking the Summer Treasure Trail down I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad summer is over. The trail has been very popular over the holidays with almost 300 children taking part and it’s been lovely having so many families down at the reserve. Our wildlife garden has proved a popular spot for a picnic in the sun and our ice creams have…

Our star bird last week remained into this week, where it was joined by a second bird for several days, though it did have to share top billing with a cracking juvenile pectoral sandpiper at the Freiston reservoir. 

Unfortunately the wryneck did prove elusive towards the latter of it's 8 day stay, not seen after the 2nd,  and reports of poor field craft and flushing the bird from bushes did reach the visitor centre…

A few months ago we had solar panels installed at our visitor centre by Prescient Power, a renewables company based in Leicestershire.

Before this, for electrical power to the centre we had to rely on a noisy deisel generator. Not exactly very green! Frampton Marsh is off the national grid, so we really had no choice. But now, with the solar panels, we have another way. Sunlight is converted into electrical energy and…

Well last week saw the last sessions of bug hunting and pond dipping for the summer. We’ve been running them through the summer holidays on Thursdays and Fridays and they’ve proved very popular. It’s been great seeing the kids get really involved in learning about nature and the parents definitely have enjoyed it too.

We’ve had some great finds over the weeks with one of the highlights being a diving…

Crumbs, this week has flow past! After the heads up we gave you last week regarding the super high tides that were upon us over the Bank Holiday weekend and some favourable weather conditions the birding has been non stop. Top billing and potentially the LWR's rarest bird of the year goes to the adult Franklin's Gull  that flew north east over a select few observers at 09:30 on the 25th. If accepted this would be only…