Toby our warden had a bit of a shock yesterday, when out working on the reserve. He came across a grass snake. Now, this isn't anything unusual. We have plenty of them here. They love to bask in the sunny spots, then go hunting along the edges of pools, channels and the like. But this one seemed to be extra friendly. It even slithered over to say hello, and started to climb up  Toby's leg!

 Toby with the snake…

The answer is not much, if the woodpecker in question is a wryneck.

We are far more familiar with birds like the great spotted woodpecker. Black and white, hammering out a rythym on a dead tree, or coming to raid our peanut feeders. Or maybe the green woodpecker, with a laughing cry that sits on ouw lawn and digs for ants. You might even be lucky enough to see lesser spotted woodpeckers, looking like dinky versions of…

If the last few days are anything to go by this could well be the best weekend of the year to visit the reserve. With high tides at comfortable times for those not keen on a dawn start, Frampton could well be THE place to visit this weekend.

A view of some of the 3,000 black-tailed godwit from the 360 Hide - Toby Collett  

As the high tide built towards it's peak on Friday morning, the end of the week was the most productive…

Today we have a guest blog, from Ellie. Here is Ellie:

 Ellie, by Chris Andrews

She has been with us for the past two weeks, doing work experience for her college course. And here is what she has to say:

Hi, my name is Ellie and I have been here for the last two weeks doing work experience. I am a college student at Askham Bryan, studying Countryside Management and Game Keeping. For this course, I need several hours…

Actually yes, it's a plane!

During the Second World War, Lincolnshire was a veritable hive of activity. Lots of airfields were in the area, with bombers based here and going over to bomb Nazi Germany. Today most are disused, but some are still active, and some are used as musueums. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is based at RAF Coningsby, not too far away and we do sometimes see their planes going over.

Walking along the path to the 360 hide yesterday, I noticed there seemed to be a fair amount of a yellow flowered plant. On looking more closely I realised it was ragwort and after looking even more closely I realised some of the plants were covered in yellow and black striped caterpillars.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort (Image by Neil Smith)

Ragwort is poisonous to animals such as cows and horses but insects…

Good afternoon. If you're not going to the Birdfair this weekend but fancy something of a birdfest instead, then here's last weeks sightings to whet your whistle for what you can expect to see at the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves this weekend.

Not suprisingly to our regular readers and visitors, waders are topping the bill with a wonderful range of species and some incredible numbers.

Off the back of the very succesful…

One of the questions we often get asked at this time of year is about a certaion plant, near to the visitor centre. Quite large, and with striking large, powder blue flowers. What is it?

Well, the plant in question is chicory. It grows up to a metre or more in height, and can often be seen along roadsides. The blue flowers are great for all sorts of insects, including bees, hoverflies and butterflies. The whole area…

Did you sleep out in the great outdoors this last weekend? Well our Big Wild Sleepout event at Frampton Marsh was great fun. We had 20 people in total and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. After all the tents were set up, Chris took everyone on an evening wildlife walk while I stayed back as camp watchmen. It was amazing listening to the sounds of the birds, most notably the 2000+ black-tailed godwits that were having…

Don't fret, Toby is back next week and the weekly round-ups can go back to their usual high standard! In the meantime though...

The pectoral sandpiper that turned up at the end of last week hung around until Tuesday, giving some pretty good views. Though at times there was a good deal of confusion off a ruff, with very similar colouration. Curlew sandpipers have also been around, in small numbers. Some of these birds…

This weekend it is the Big Wild Sleepout. A national event, where we are encouraging people to spend a night sleeping out of doors. Either in their own gardens or on one of our reserves.

Here at Frampton Marsh we are taking part, by allowing people, for the first time ever, to officially sleep out on the reserve. A brave band of 20 will be spending Saturday night camping out on the grassland.

This was a bookable event,…

Hello again!

Yes, it's me again. Toby is still off on leave with his new baby, so the consise round-ups continue.

The Baird's sandpiper unfortunately disappeared last Friday night, so no sign this week. We do currently have a pectoral sandpiper though that turned up today. First seen on the reedbed lagoon, it later reloacted to an area near to the East hide. It was showing well for most of the day, so fingers crossed…

OK, either I'm going a bit soft or I've taken the RSPB's new strapline 'Giving Nature a Home' just a bit too literally....

On Sunday a couple of visitors reported a black-headed gull was walking ahead of them like it was doing the treasure hunt around the Reedbed Trail. I decided to investigate and found the gull at the pond dipping platform, apparently having completed the treasure hunt and starting…

Have you heard of the Nature of Farming award? Every year the RSPB invite entries from wildlife-friendly farmers across the country for this competition. It’s the UKs biggest farm wildlife award and is all about doing positive work for wildlife.

Farmland covers over 75% of the UK and here in Lincolnshire a large amount of our land is used for agriculture. Many UK species are dependent on farmland and so managing…

Hi folks!

A shorter and more concise round-up this week. Partly because of the first important sighting. A little baby boy for Toby! That is why he isn't here, and the duty falls to me.

Well, oddly enough the big news of the week has to be the Baird's sandpiper. Much kerfuffle about this and the ID. First seen on Tuesday, it was initially identified as a little stint. By Wednesday it had stopped lurking in far away…

School's out for summer. School's out forever! (Well, not quite)

Songs by veteran rocker Alice Cooper aside, schools have now either broken up for summer or are just about to in the next couple of days. So what do we have on for kids?

Well, running right through the holidays we have a treasure trail. Various clues hidden around the reedbed trail (just over a mile in length). You can pick up a trail sheet from…

Quite naughtily I relegated a non-birdy first for the reserve towards the bottom of the blog last week, terribly poor form of me indeed. So it is extremely fortunate that I can make amends so quickly due to a note we found on the Visitor Centre on Tuesday morning. 'Marbled White - Pond dipping platform 17:30'. A very casual way to discover we've just had another first for the reserve! That's two in 2 weeks!! The …

Well with all the nice weather there’s been plenty of wildlife flying around and not just the birds. We’ve had all sorts of damselflies, butterflies and dragonflies darting about and it’s been a great sight to see.

Dragonflies are among the fastest flying insects in the world with larger ones reaching speeds of up to 30mph. There are many different species and here at Frampton Marsh we have emperor…

Or a mediterranean gull to you and I. Not that much of a revelation really (well it probably is if you don't know any German bird names) seeing as the black-headed gulls we all know and love at the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves have brown heads so aren't truly black headed at all. So why mention it then? Well it's all in the name.

Mediterranean Gull (AHTJ) - taken on date of ringing May 23 2009 by Simon Hinric…

Well, what a lovely day! The sun has been shining with all its might. And with a light breeze, it made the reserve lovely and warm. Just what you need for a family fun day.

Did you come along? If not then you missed out. We were making nestboxes to put up at home, a hive of industrious activity. Liz our face painter was in fine form with some lovely designs. Plus badges to be made, masks worn and a chance to see how…

With last weeks highlight lingering for an afternoon only, the star bird this week obliged by staying a little bit longer. A third calendar year spoonbill was found on the reedbed early doors on the 9th, and was present again on the 10th, giving occasional aerial views as well as being seen in the more familiar snooze postition.

Spoonbill - Toby Collett 

With both their number and variety, waders once again caught the…

Well what a glorious weekend it was! The sun was out and so were the baby birds. We had the pleasure of viewing swallow fledglings through the visitor centre windows learning to fly and being fed by their parents. There was the occasional thud on the window where the chicks went slightly off course but no harm was done. We also had goldfinch chicks attempting to land on the bird feeder perches to get some seed along with…

Welcome to the first of what will be a regular feature on our blog, providing a weekly round up of what's been seen on both of the Lincolnshire Wash reserves to tempt you out for a visit at the weekend. And what a weekend it's going to be!

A few lingering brent geese have been seen around the saltmarshes at both Freiston and Frampton but generally the wildfowl highlights have been the broods of shoveler on the…

Don't you wish you could replay images of what you saw? I do! Shutting up the visitor centre today, I glanced out of the window and saw a warbler sat on top of the tree our bird feeders are on. Now, this is unusual enough, we tend not to get warblers close to the centre. But this one was a rather non-descript grey colour, definitely not a reed or sedge warbler (the usual ones we get). More than that I can't say, as it…

I'm always told how marvellous it is to work on a nature reserve. Out in the fresh air, lots of wildlife to spot. Alas, the reality often is being in the office doing the 'behind the scenes' work. But sometimes I do get outside. and this week there is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Bird Watching magazine (other, similar, publications are available...) is running what they call the 'Birding Lunch'…