Hello,

it has been a typical November day today. The wind has been on the bitter side, and we have even had a few spots of rain too.

Today's sightings highlights have included:

Whooper swan 8

Pink-footed goose 12

White-fronted goose 35

Barnacle goose 35

Brent goose 1000+

Pintail 22

Goldeneye 2

Peregrine 2

Merlin 1

Sparrowhawk 2

Hen harrier (m) 1

Marsh harrier (f) 1

Barn owl 1

Little owl 1

Lapwing…

Hello,

It has been very cold on the reserve today. The wind has had a real bite to it.

Sightings:

Whooper swan 8

White-fronted goose 27

Barnacle goose 30

Brent goose 1000+

Goldeneye 2

Spotted redshank 2

Dunlin 13

Lapwing 1000+

Golden plover 600+

Grey plover 1

Ruff 1

Peregrine 2

Merlin 1

Hen harrier (m) 1

Barn owl 1

Cheers,

Simon.

We’ve had a great day here at Frampton Marsh today! I have been away from the reserve for a week and have come back to thousands of birds, beautiful blue skies and a very special visitor.

Heading down to the visitor centre this morning I couldn’t have wished for a better day. It was a bit colder than it has been but the sun was shining in a cloudless sky and there were ducks, geese and waders in amazing numbers…

Hello,

it has been a bit of a foggy day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh, but there have been lots of wonderful winter birds on site. We have been joined today by the Cambridge U3A group, who have had a very enjoyable day, experiencing the stunning wildlife that the reserve has to offer.

Sightings have included -

Whooper swan 44

Brent goose 700+

European white-fronted goose 10

Wigeon 680+

Teal 300+

Shoveler 35

G…

Hi,

Whooper swan 23 (on the reservior)

Pink-footed goose 200+ over, 9 on the scrapes

Brent goose 950+ on the salt marsh with a black brant.

Teal 250+

Ruff 3

Dunlin 12

Merlin 1

Hen Harrier (f) 1

Great grey shrike still showing well at the river mouth.

Cheers,

Simon.

Frampton Marsh

Optics Day.

Saturday 19^th November

10am – 4pm.

Come and join our optical experts for a day of demonstration.

Great bargains available on Swarovski, Leica, Viking, RSPB and Puffin binoculars and scopes.

Hello,

It has been another windy but mild day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. Sightings highlights have included:

Whooper swan 26

Pink-footed goose 9

Brent goose 1150+

Black-tailed godwit 36

Little stint 2

Curlew sandpiper 1

Ruff 38

Curlew 16

Peregrine 1

Merlin 3

Hen harrier 1

Linnet 22

Twite 3

Corn bunting 5

The weather for the weekend:

Saturday- Sunny and bright with highs of 12C. The wind will continue…

Hello,

It has been a glorious start to the weekend. There was a little frost and fog to start with, but the strong sunshine has soon burnt that away.

Site manager John Badley, is lucky enough to be on Scilly for a couple of weeks, so I have been drafted in to do his wetland birds survey (WeBS).  This is a very nice job to do, as it involves doing a survey of the whole reserve, counting every wetland bird that can be…

I love productive days…it always feels satisfying to come home feeling tired! But there are two things that make a productive day even better: The first is good company, and with the practical volunteers I couldn’t be in anything but that! The second is great moments with wildlife!

Today, I was joined by a big team of the practical volunteers, for one of the biggest tasks of the year on site (at least…

...so come and have a look! Currently onsite is a bulldozer, this is creating some bunds (areas of higher ground) on the wet grassland which should help us to hold more water onsite. To get the spoil to do this we are creating new pools, which will also help us to hold water for longer into the spring and increasing the breeding habitat for waders, such as lapwings and redshanks!

Buldozers at Frampton Marsh (Photo…

Hello,

we have had a very mild but windy day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. We were joined by the Ogston Bird Club and a group from Newbury, Berkshire.

Sightings highlights have included:

Pectoral sandpiper 1

Spotted redshank 5

Little stint 3

Marsh harrier 2

Merlin 1

Thanks,

Simon.

Hello,

Apologies for not updating this information last week, but unfortunately, I was away from the reserve for a few days.

It has been sunny but breezy today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. Visitors have been treated to close views of hundreds of wigeon, some teal and a couple of pintails.

Other highlights have included:

Whooper swan 4

Brent goose 250+

Little stint 1

Curlew sandpiper 1

Greenshank 4

Ruff 50+

Stonechat…

This week we have had the biggest high tides of the autumn. These bring birds into the inland water bodies of our reserves off of the saltmarsh. Giving you a real wader spectacular, as hundreds of waders – e.g. knot, oystercatchers, redshank, black-tailed godwit, dunlin – fly up off the saltmarsh in great waves as the tide approaches. Its is worth watching, then fascinating to watch them all feeding and the busyness…

That title sounds a bit like my evening chores but in this case I am not talking about my flat but jobs I was doing yesterday with a couple of volunteers. It was a lovely sunny day, just like today...and the forecast looks great for tomorrow too – so make a trip down to Frampton Marsh for a walk in the sunshine as the reserve looks wonderful with all the autumn colours coming out!

First thing we did yesterday was…

Hello,

Today at RSPB Frampton Marsh we have been joined by the Gravesend RSPB Local Group and pupils from the Thomas Deacon Acadamy in Peterborough. 

The Gravesend group saw some great birds and had an enjoyable day in the sun.

The TDA students seperated into two groups. One had a walk around the reedbed with me, while the other group did some landscape painting in the 360 hide with the TDA teachers. Then we swapped…

Thankfully the terrible weather forecast that Simon read out to me in the office on Friday afternoon never materialised today. Instead, I drove down to the reserve in the pretty morning sunlight. I headed for the bottom car park near the sea bank, and on arriving stopped to say hello to a regular visitor. Chatting away, we watched a swallow over the wet grassland – he commented that autumn was here, I was almost about…

As I drove into the car park this morning, I spotted one of the regular birders, and hopped out of the truck to see if he’d seen much during his morning walk. Standing in the rain, I wasn’t disappointed as he told me he’d seen four marsh harriers and a hobby over the saltmarsh and that there were at least three spotted redshank on the freshwater habitats. It sounded like a good start to the day…

Hello,

It has been a breezy but mild day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. Sightings highlights have included:

Gannet 3

Pink-footed goose 1

Brent goose 1

Shelduck 22

Peregrine 1

Hobby 1

Merlin 1

Marsh harrier 2

Spotted redshank 3

Greenshank 12

Curlew sandpiper 1

Ringed plover 21

Ruff 100+

Wheatear 5

Stonechat 1

Tree sparrow 22.

Predicted high tides for the week ahead are listed below.

Date

As a great start to the beginning of autumn I went on a bat and moth event. It was held at Tattershall church where bats have made a home for themselves. We had a great talk on bats and learnt some cool facts like each bat eats 2000-3000 insects a night and they can emit up to 20 calls a second to eco-locate prey. As the sun set, the bats started coming down from the roof, they’d flit around for a bit then squeeze…

Autumn is definitely upon us. It seems to have sneaked up on us in the last couple of weeks. I was away for a few days at the very beginning of September and I came back to find conkers on the roads, crisp yellow leaves blowing in the wind and a definite chill in the air. It’s almost as if the winds have brought in the change.

Many people think of Autumn as the end of summer and the start of a downhill slope…

Hello!

It has been very warm at RSPB Frampton Marsh today, with a much stronger wind than predicted. The forecast for the weekend is as follows:

Saturday- White cloud predicted for the whole day, with drizzle forecast for 4am. Maximum temperatures should reach around 22C. The wind is predicted to reach 18mph and will come from the south.

Sunday- Light showers are predicted for most of the day (should bring in even…

Hello,

It has been a windy day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh, but not quite as windy as yesterday. The rain that was forecast managed to stay away until we had a brief shower around 2.30pm.

We have recorded record numbers of ruff this week with just over 100 on site at any one time. We have even been finding them in the newly harvested stubble fields. As there have been so many flying around from field to field, we have…

It has been a while so decided its time for a bit of a blog from the wardening team. I thought I’d start by just letting you know about a few of the things we are up to on site at the moment. On the reed bed we have been busy clearing the remainder of the reed pens, which were put up when the seedlings were planted in 2009 to discourage coots and wildfowl from grazing on the young shoots. With the reeds now well established…

Hello,

it has been a very hot and sunny day today at RSPB Frampton Marsh. Along with the great weather, our visitors have enjoyed lots of great sightings of some fantastic wildlife.

Highlights have included:

wigeon 180+

teal 140+

pintail 7

peregrine 1

merlin 2

marsh harrier 6

curlew sandpiper 30! (RSPB Frampton Marsh record!)

little stint 6

greenshank 8

Why not come along for a visit this weekend? Its really…

When I set off for work this morning it was a grey and drizzly day but the sun has come out! I popped down to the reserve a bit earlier to drop some bits off. As there wasn’t a vehicle free I decided to cycle down. With my new panniers packed with colouring in sheets and posters I set off down the road. My offer to go and drop these bits off was totally selfless of course, but as I pootled along in the sun I was very…