Saturday 29th April 2017.
The superb Frampton reserve continues to improve, year on year and can now rival some of the top reserves in the country. Ben Ward and myself decided to have a proper go at a daylist, we thought we could crack the 100 species mark with a bit of an effort. It was great to have the bird magnet with me again! We had originally planned to visit midweek but delayed it due to the wintry weather. It was a good move, as a few new birds were in and the wind had swung round to a more southerly or south westerly direction. Mind you, it was still chilly in the breeze.
Birding in the dark was a thrilling experience, strange and weird calls could be heard, we accepted that we couldn’t identify all of them but a wide variety of familiar sounds seemed amplified in the dark.
03:30am. As soon as we got out of the car, parking at the reservoir, a cetti’s warbler was blasting out song, also a reed warbler. Lapwings were very noisy, one close bird constantly calling sounded a bit owl-like at times. When daylight dawned we could see some lapwings with chicks, just hours old. A tawny owl was calling and ducks, skylarks, redshanks, snipe and geese were heard.
04:15am. With the first chinks of light came a flurry of chorus and lots of birds were added. A few silhouettes of ducks and swans could be made out.
04:49am. The pair of scaup were still on the reservoir.
05:00am. We walked down to the sea wall, via the far hedgerow. 3 turtle doves purred away nicely. At least 15 whimbrels showed. A whooper swan was with mutes. There were lots of ruff, some looking amazing, all in varying dress. We saw our first wheatear of the day. A splendid breeding plumage wood sandpiper brought our list to 66 by 07:00am. still at the reservoir area, further searching gave us a few hard to get birds like rook, green woodpecker, jay, buzzard and red-legged partridge.
08:30am. We drove round to the main car park, lots of coffee and some birding junk food fired us up for a walk around the reserve. 3 Mediterranean gulls, a pair and a single called and showed well. A cuckoo was singing and later, it or another flew around. There was a fairly high tide and lots of waders were roosting and preening. Knot, dunlin, blackwits, ringed plovers, grey plovers, turnstones, redshanks, little ringed plovers and a curlew sandpiper were welcomed into the notebook. A pair of Egyptian geese had a brood of five goslings. (later, 7 noted by another birder). This was amazing, as it was the first sighting here of this species this year! Where did they nest? Must have been off the beaten track. How far did the parents bring the family to get them there there? Six common terns rested on one of the islands. Corn bunting sat up and sang at the far side of reedbed scrape. Two marsh harriers seen from sea bank. We had registered 90 species soon after 09:00am.
Next up, it was the hike to the Witham mouth. The tickometer slowed down considerably from here on in. Nothing on the sea, not much in the bushes. Two uncooperative ring ouzels and some feral pigeons were the only additions over the next two hours. We saw lots more whimbrels and a couple more wheatears showed. A fourth turtle dove was at the mouth and flew inland.
Early pm. Back at the scrapes, couldn’t wait to get back to the visitor centre for more coffee. We located the resident barnacle goose and spotted a peregrine fly over the reserve. The first of twenty odd yellow wags was seen. The grasshopper warbler proved very elusive, I didn’t hear it, but Ben did. List up to 100 by mid afternoon. The word had somehow got round that we were going for it and people were asking “what you up to now, lads?” This drove us on.
4:30pm. Hard work to add anything new now. A couple of hours back on the sea wall produced little stint and pintail. Another marsh harrier, this time a mature tri-coloured adult was a joy to watch at close range. We finished up on 104 full species. ( sparrowhawk, jay and grasshopper warbler by Ben only). We never saw or heard a song thrush all day. Reserve warden Toby informed us that this was the first time that a three figure count had been notched in a single day. I somehow think this total won’t stand for too long at this ever-improving site. Also seen was a white wagtail. We departed the reserve around 8:30pm.
List, and counts;
- cettis warbler
- wigeon, still twenty-thirty on site
- pheasant
- teal, still several pairs around
- reed warbler, dozen or so
- snipe, several heard pre dawn
- curlew, a few
- moorhen
- mallard
- lapwing, quite a few breeding pairs some already with chicks
- tawny owl, calling
- redshank, 50+
- skylark, many
- mute swan, 20+
- blackbird
- tufted duck, mostly paired up, didn’t count them
- woodpigeon
- pochard, a few
- scaup, pair on reservoir
- wren
- shoveler, didn’t count them perhaps 40+
- robin
- dunnock
- blackcap, a few singing males
- greylag
- yellowhammer, 10
- whitethroat, 6
- turtle dove, 3 in hedgerow, 1 at witham mouth.
- little egret 20+
- black headed gull, hundreds
- coot
- great crested grebe, a few pairs
- chaffinch
- herring gull
- gadwall, didn’t count them
- carrion crow
- sedge warbler, lots now in
- avocet, 60+
- shelduck, 80+
- cormorant
- grey heron, 5
- magpie
- linnet
- common gull
- brent goose, 500+ still here
- black tailed godwit, 40+
- kestrel, 3
- meadow pipit
- great black backed gull
- spotted redshank, 2 or 3
- ringed plover, 20+
- marsh harrier, 3
- little ringed plover, a few pairs
- oystercatcher, a few on reserve, 200+ at Witham mouth
- lesser black backed gull, 10+
- ruff, 50+
- whimbrel, 15 on grassland, 50+ at Witham mouth
- swallow, odd ones and twos through all day
- whooper swan, wet grassland
- goldfinch
- starling
- wheatear, 1 near res, 2 seawall
- pied wagtail
- wood sandpiper, near res
- stock dove, a few pairs
- blue tit
- red legged partridge,2
- common sandpiper, res
- great tit
- rook
- jay (only seen by Ben)
- mistle thrush
- green woodpecker,2
- jackdaw
- buzzard,3
- collared dove
- greenfinch
- chiffchaff
- house sparrow
- long tailed tit
- little grebe
- mediterranian gull, a pair and a single
- canada goose
- tree sparrow
- house martin, over vc
- reed bunting
- grasshopper warbler, (only heard by Ben)
- egyptian goose, family
- cuckoo, 1, poss 2
- dunlin, 100+
- curlew sandpiper, winter plumage
- knot, c30
- corn bunting
- sparrowhawk (only seen by Ben)
- common tern, 6
- turnstone 6
- grey plover, c40
- feral pigeon
- ring ouzel, 2, Tabbs head walk
- peregrine
- yellow wagtail, c25
- barnacle goose
- little stint
- pintail, pair
- (white wagtail) (sub sp), 6
lincsbirders 