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.