A beautiful sunny day saw Alan Shorrock and I taking a walk around Frampton Marsh. I don't often visit this site in winter but there were enough decent birds about to suggest that further visits at this time of year might be worthwhile.
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| Lesser Yellowlegs |
Highlight was a Lesser Yellowlegs which was the same one that we saw back in September, apparently it's been at Frampton now for one hundred and seventeen days. We managed to get reasonable views of it though the bright sunshine made photography a bit of a challenge. Other waders present in the area included Avocets, some Ruffs and Black-tailed Godwits. Plenty of Golden Plovers and Lapwings were on the reserve and they were joined on the marshes by a few Curlews. Several Water Rails were heard squealing from the reedbeds where a flock of eighteen Bearded Tits were seen by others but sadly not by us.
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| Golden Plovers, Ruff and Lapwing |
There were plenty of dabbling ducks taking advantage of the flooded areas with Wigeon being the commonest. Most attractive were the Pintails of which about fifty were seen with most on the reserve. Not too many diving ducks were noted but a female Scaup was a decent find. Several hundred Brent Geese came in from the saltmarsh and small parties of Pink-footed Geese were noted passing over, a flock of thirteen were on the flooded fields. A single Whooper Swan was probably the resident bird rather than a migrant. Last decent sighting of the day was an adult male Peregrine which Alan found sitting on one of the many fenceposts. It seems we picked the right time to leave as rain began to fall as we made our way back home.
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| Brent Geese, Pintail and Shoveller |
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