Waders and Willow

Bank Holiday saw me taking a trip out of the county in the company of two friends as we headed over to Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire. A Stilt Sandpiper had arrived there last week and we hoped to catch up with this extremely rare visitor from North America. Clearly other people had shared the same thought as the car park was full to overflowing when we arrived and we found ourselves parking in a neighbouring field.

Avocet.

Our target was not too difficult to find as it fed amongst hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits on the lagoon next  to the visitor centre. No photos as the bird was always fairly distant and also because for the first time since I began this blog I forgot my camera. We saw the bird from several other view points and had plenty of good scope view of what was only my second example of this species. There was not a large variety of waders today, apart from the many Black-tailed Godwits there were a few Ruff, a Redshank, plenty of Lapwings and an Avocet.

Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit.

While the weather was nowhere near as awful as yesterday's it was still not great but there was just enough sunshine to tempt us into looking for a reported Willow Emerald damselfly. It had been seen and photographed on the pond near the visitor centre where they conduct a certain activity (I'm not using the D word) involving nets and buckets. We looked for quite a while and it was beginning to look a little like I'd bought my Northants luck with me. Happily one of our gang picked one out, a female, perching on a reed. She flew up to grab what looked like a pretty large prey item before landing again to eat it. I was able to get my scope on her and we were able to note the diagnostic pale pterostigmas as she munched her way through her substantial meal. Once finished she disappeared but I'd enjoyed seeing what was only my second ever Willow Emerald and Lincolnshire's fourth I believe. Other species seen around the pond included Migrant Hawker, Common Darter and Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Whooper Swan from today courtesy of Alan Shorrock.

On our way back to the car we found the reported Whooper Swan and as it was with last week's Great Northern Diver at Rutland Water it was good to see a winter species in much nicer conditions than normal.

Willow Emerald from last year at Finedon.

As I can't show pictures of my own from today I've put a few in from previous outings to provide a splash of colour. Alan Shorrock was kind enough to allow me to add a couple of his from Frampton.


Alan Shorrock's record shot of today's Willow Emerald.