A Record Day at Frampton
The day didn't start off with this in mind. Arriving with my dad at Frampton at 08:15, I had two main targets: 1. to see 20 species of wader in a day (something I've somehow never previously managed) and 2. to find the Temminck's Stint which had been around on the reserve for a few days but been notoriously elusive. This would be a UK lifer, having previously seen one only at Aiguamolls in Spain.
I've always loved waders. I'm not quite sure why but from an early age Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint were two of my favourite birds. I love scanning through a teaming scrape, not knowing what you might pick out from a throng of busy waders. I think this is why I love Frampton so much as in recent years it's certainly made a name for itself as one of the Wader Capitals of Britain.
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| Knot over Frampton Marsh |
With a mid-morning high tide, I had planned a route (with the help of Toby Collett) which I hoped would maximise my chances of all the wader species, some of which can only be found on or around high tide. I would start at the Reedbed before the tide to get incoming roosting waders and perhaps get lucky with Sanderling, Turnstone or a Snipe early doors, then move to the North Scrape for Spotted Redshank and Little Stint and then the Sea Wall at high tide looking onto the Roads Farm grassland for Greenshank and out on the salt marsh for Grey Plover and Whimbrel.
The plan went perfectly - after half an hour of watching the Reedbed I had enjoyed the spectacle of thousands of Knot and Black-tailed Godwit flocking in to roost, along with huge numbers of Dunlin, plus Avocet, Ruff, Redshank, Lapwing and Ringed Plover. A Sanderling hid amongst a group of 4 Dunlin, a Snipe flew over to the East and I finally located 4 Turnstone on a spit by the Visitor Centre. What a start! Spoonbills gave fantastic views as they flew around the reserve and the summering Whooper Swan swam past, close by.
Moving on to the North Scrape area (where Black-necked Grebes successfully bred this year) I was surprised to find the scrape full of waders. We decided to watch from behind the Sea Wall behind the East Hide steps, scoping back down onto the pool and hoping this blocked some of the strong SW wind. Amongst the many common waders here, we added Spotted Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint and Little Ringed Plover. Without even having to move, we spun around to scan the salt marsh behind us. Light wasn't great but we picked out Whimbrel, Curlew, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher. I also found a distant Common Sandpiper on the River Witham, which would prove to be the only one of the day!
Roads Farm was covered with hundreds Dunlin, and the wind made viewing very hard. I tried in earnest to scan through the bulk, but as they were hunkered down in the grass it was almost impossible. I applaud anyone who can pick out White-rumped Sandpipers from flocks like that! The Greenshank were easy to locate, however, and gave great views. From the Sea Wall, Hobby, Marsh Harrier, Tufted Duck and Grey Heron proved to be important additions. Huge numbers of Yellow Wagtails flew at our feet - I never fail to see them here.
Speaking to some birders there, we were told that they had seen the Temminck's Stint this morning from the main road, viewing towards the 360 Degree Hide. Many other birders were walking down the road to the spot and we set up our scopes along the roadside level with the 360 Degree Hide. After a few minutes, my dad got me onto a bird on a spit in front of the hide, and sure enough it was the Temminck's Stint. It gave great views as it fed on the spit with no other waders around, as is customary with this species. It showed for around 5 minutes and flew to the left behind the reeds, where it disappeared at around 10:45. I think this was possibly the last time it was seen all day! What a bird, though. This was a highly anticipated lifer for me.
While watching the Temminck's, I spotted a small bird in the grass just a few metres in front of the crowd - a Whinchat. It performed well and I managed to get some pictures with my Nikon Coolpix.
We headed back to the visitor centre on 24 wader species before 11am, smashing our day's target, and hoping to get to a nice round 25 before the day was up. After tallying our list, we realised we were also on 75 species in total, with very few passerines seen.
Frampton is a strange place for listing - 100 species on the reserve is a very feasible target and yet at the same time it's the sort of place where you can quite easily miss a Blackbird! Indeed, Blackbird was my 92nd species of the day!
We had lunch on the western footpath, on a bench overlooking the bushes south of the car park. In a short time, 6 species of warbler moved through the hedgerow (Chiff, Willow, Reed, Sedge, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat) plus Greenfinch, Linnet, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, a flyover Shoveler and a possible glimpse of a Grasshopper Warbler... which ended up being the one that got away. The walk around the southern edge of the reserve was hard work and slow going but we did get some important additions such as Stock Dove, Red Kite, Yellowhammer and best of all Little Owl.
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| Record shot of the Little Owl around its favoured barn from the southern path |
Instead of coming back to the visitor centre via the road we did the full loop around the top of the Sea Wall and along the northern reserve boundary, around the Reedbed. This was mainly so we could get another look at the North Scrape waders without the strong wind. They were still there and the Curlew Sandpiper count had risen to 9 birds and Little Stints to 3. We enjoyed great views that were sometimes too close for the scope to view over the fenceline!
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| Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Wood Sandpiper |
The western hedgerow added a few new birds - namely Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Bullfinch and Blackbird and as we neared the visitor centre a very fortuitous Green Sandpiper flew over calling, making itself not only the last bird (93rd) of the day but the prized 25th wader.
I later found out that the all-time record at Frampton is 26 waders - so I'm very proud to have got so close despite only one true rarity being on site. Aside from Golden Plover I would have needed something pretty special to add any more.
The drive home was punctuated by heavy rain showers, but we had some lucky sightings which took us closer to the 100. Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Rook and House Martin all added themselves to the day list.
Being so tantalisingly close to 100 when I got home, I simply had to go for a walk behind my house after dinner to get those final additions. And the patch delivered - Coal Tit from the house, followed by Red-legged Partridge, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest and Raven.
The day wasn't over though and possibly the biggest surprise of the day came when I found my first ever Wheatear on the fields behind my house! It just goes to show that autumn migration is everywhere. Song Thrush and then Jackdaw made it 105, the final tally of an awesome day.
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| Binocular-scoped Wheatear |
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