Frampton RSPB.

Had my best day birding for ages with no less than 23 different waders seen.The weather was a lot better for birding and it seems birds are beginning to move.There was nobody about when I arrived and lots of small waders were right in front of the visitor centre.Most of them flew further away when the rspb man opened up the shutters,but I forgave him when he picked out a little stint.

These are the waders I saw today:

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Spotted redshank-from 360 hide.

Little stint-from visitor centre.

Sanderling-with Dunlins from visitor centre.

Curlew sandpiper-on East scrapes.

Wood sandpiper-in drainage ditch on grassland.

Green sandpipers-at least eight,reedbed and grassland area.

Golden plover-five,east scrape and reedbed.

Common sandpiper-two or three on scrapes.

Black tailed godwits-over a hundred.

Knot-half a dozen in summer plumage.

Greenshank-two or three,east hide and wetland.

Dunlins-c.30.

Ruff-at least twenty.

Avocets-lots adults and juvs.

Turnstones-about a dozen-early, from visitor centre.

Ringed plovers-c.20.

Little ringed plovers-several adults and juvs.

Whimbrel-a couple on the saltmarsh.

Curlew-several on saltmarsh.

Snipe-five or six on south scrape.

Oystercatchers-odd ones and pairs all over.

Redshanks-c.30.

Lapwings-lots around inc.some juvs.

It seems that I’m not the only one for whom woodsand is a bogey bird.I met up with a couple of fellas (Steve and Mark) from Melton who I bumped into a couple of years back.We’d heard that a woodsand had been reported so we had a good hunt and eventually found it-sweet delight !

We then had a look on the salt marsh,where Steve spotted a merlin sitting on a post.Next a fine male marsh harrier gave good views,earlier I’d seen a female too.

Other good birds were a couple of corn buntings,seen from the path around the reedbed.Another birder put me onto a couple of garganey,these were not in the bright plumage of early season,possibly both females.Lots of little egrets were around and a sparrowhawk hunted.Five brent geese remained.

When I got back home I received a text from Melton Steve,they had added grey plover and bar tailed godwit after I left,so that’s 25 wader species on site.Can’t be bad.