The previous weekend was rather wet over much of the country following several extremely hot and rather unpleasant days. This resulted in a large influx of Wood Sandpipers along parts of the East Coast with three figure numbers reported from some sites. Many other wader species also arrived in decent numbers, and since it was going to be a very high tide around the Wash, it seemed to be a sensible idea to go and see some of them.
In recent years, RSPB Frampton Marsh seems to have become best place for passage waders and up to 26 species had been recorded in the first days of August, including the almost resident but generally elusive Long Billed Dowitcher. The 8m high tide on Saturday morning meant that there would be a massive number of birds on the reserve and we were able to arrive just as the waters were starting to drop.
Starting around the centre, Common and Green Sandpipers could be found all over the big lagoon, and there were likely to have been 10+ of each present. On juvenile Little Ringed Plover was also seen. There are four Black Necked Grebes there as well, though I only found one adult and one juvenile. They remained at some distance and my attempt at shooting through the scope wasn't overly successful with rather soft images at an equivalent focal length of about 3000mm.
Heading down to the sea wall where we were told that most of the action was taking place we stopped off now and again. Yellow wagtails were flying around with many tens of adults and juvenile birds associating with the cattle on the grazing marshes. There were several Wood Sandpipers on the pools here though mobile and sometimes flighty. Someone had reported 15 here but I was only able to count 6, maybe 8 though visibility from the road wasn't ideal. Trying from the higher sea wall wasn't much better due to distance and the increasing heat haze, but the six Whimbrel on the salt marsh were a bit easier to see.
Continuing along the wall, which was covered in thistles, measles and Painted Ladies we were able to check out the massive flocks of Black Tailed Godwits and Knot for other species. Dunlin were present in good numbers bit it was clear that many were flying out to the Wash and we were told that a Peregrine had flushed many, taking the Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints with them. People were searching for the Dowitcher though Im not sure if it was seen while we were there, but we did pick up
maybe a dozen Spotted Redshanks, many Redshank, Ringed Plover Ruff, Snipe, Avocet, Oystercatcher, and a few Golden and Grey Plover, Turnstone and Bar Tailed Godwits, so we ended up with twenty species of wader here.
Ducks were starting to come out of eclipse. Mainly Mallard and Gadwall of course with some Teal, Wigeon Pochard and Tufties. I was able to find one Garganey but there were supposed to be several around. Much easier were the eight Spoonbill being big and white.
By the time we stared the return walk back to the car it had got rather warm and I was shattered (not helped by a bad few days at work and a very tiring day at Hyde hall Flower Show with Sarah on Thursday). As a result, while I checked the ditches for dragonflies it was bit of a struggle and apart from a few Common Darters and one Emperor. The intention was to return to the central hide after a bit of lunch and search in earnest but in the end decided it wouldn't gain much if anything so I suggested returning home via Therfield Heath and the ulterior motive of a county tick.
By the time we got there in the early afternoon it had clouded over a bit and the breeze had picked up. Walking through Fox Covert I could see many White Helleborines so it looked like it had been a good year, but I couldn't see any other orchids.
Out on the hillside Chalkhill blues were out in abundance among the Autumn Gentians, Harebells, Burnets and thistles. Large and Essex Skippers were present but the hoped for Dark Green Fritillary was a bit harder to find and took much searching as they were pretty much over.
Colin found two Spotted Flycatchers which were a very nice bonus and meant we needn't visit Sandon Church afterwards (the pair there have been successful with two fledged youngsters). Also a bonus was the two Silver Washed Fritillaries in the woods on the way back.
No comments:
Post a Comment