I thought that last week was a good birding
week for me, what with Bittern Cuckoo and Nightjar, and then the Glossy Ibis,
but with hindsight my account of our Frampton trip was somewhat abridged! To
redress the situation…
I had previously canvassed any interest from
the Carsington BwB birders for a day-away and when I found a suitable date,
Peter, Pam, Graham, Janet, Rob and Reg decided to come with me for the day. It
was my intention to go there anyway, but it was nice having a small group, with
the advantage of more pairs of eyes looking for birds.
We planned to arrive at 10.00am, and Grahams’
enthusiasm was reflected in his coming the night before!! He was en route from
Sussex to Staffs, so an overnight kip in his van was no stress, and he was
rewarded with a Barn Owl at 6.00am as he enjoyed his (hot-) morning porridge
and a cup of Tetley’s. In fact, when we left him at 5pm it was his intention to
catch the 5.35pm hi-tide, another sleep over, and goodness knows what goodies
on Monday before driving home. (We all dread hearing what we missed…. In fact,
we should know in time for the end of this blog.) (Sun Jun 3rd… Grahams success? Zilch!!! It rained!!)
Previous sightings info on the RSPB and
Birdguide web sites are OK as long as you know the locations that are reported,
and I had struggled with the location of Marsh Farm Reservoir at Frampton. But
the RSPB volunteers pointed us in the right direction, and we found the Glossy
Ibis bang in the right spot, notwithstanding the efforts of a photographer who
had gone way off track to try and get a close-up portrait of the Ibis. It gave
us a lot of pleasure to see the Ibis get the hump and fly further away!
12,000 paces took us round a large circuit of
the wetland area, a route I had not taken before, but also gave us a pair of
very Yellow Wagtails together with Linnets. Because 180 degrees of the vision
from the 360 hide is now dry earth, I suspect the high number of birds in the present
wetland are birds who have relocated from the dry area.
The 12k paces got us back to the visitor
centre for a picnic lunch, followed by a hide afternoon. The East hide now
turned out to be the most interesting with a superb breeding plumage Grey
Plover, Reed Bunting and Black Tailed Godwits.
4pm we were back to the RSPB coffee machine,
debriefing and future planning***, followed by an orderly departure home and
waving night-night to Graham!
Interestingly a comparison of 3 of our pace
counters at the end showed that Peter had walked the furthest!!, but we were
all c17k for the day.
The down-side? Turtle Dove had not been
reported, and we did not find the Ruff Lek or the Garganey, but c50 species for
our combined sightings was a good day with some new lifers for some.
This is a photograph from Rob of our little
group of 7 + the 2 late arrivals, but which of the group took the photo???!!!
*** At the Carsington BwB today ((3rd
June) I floated the idea of another birdaway day and the consensus of opinion
was that we would have another bird day in 2018. Sunday the 14th October was the
popular day, and we would spend the day at Old Moor, an RSPB reserve North of
Sheffield and South of Barnsley. If you are interested, put it in your diary,
and we will dot the i’s on the itinerary nearer the time. Apart from the main
reserve, there are 4 other very close locations we can visit so there will be
plenty of areas to visit.
4.30pm Tuesday May 29th, and I am
watching from my study window what can best be described as a whisper of
Starlings on a neighbour’s lawn. Not a common sight by any means but trying to
count birds running around the lawn and coming and going to roof tops is
proving difficult, and my best estimate is 50-60. Let’s see what happens on
Wednesday! (Wed 30th… No
encore!!.)
Emails have been toing and froing from Chris
birding for 7 days on the Western Isles, and now on Benbecula.
With 24 hours still to go, and Sea Eagle the
hoped for addition today, Chris is on 195.
Subject to what Amanda has to tell me on Sunday, I sort of think Chris
is going to do the 200, in 6 months. I couldn’t even guess what she is likely
to get for the whole year, but I’ll keep you up to date on this brilliant achievement.
Probably means another significant recognition token from John.
I spoke to 6 birders on Sunday to establish how
they were progressing towards their 200 targets after 5 months.
The current scores “in no particular order!!”
are… 178, 101, 128, 154, 171 and 130. What was satisfying was that most of them
considered that they are further ahead than they were at the same date in 2017,
a recognition I would suggest of improved knowledge. (Ed;…and getting out more!!)
Oh by the way the walk for the 22 people on the BwB walkwas quiet, except for some good Warblers, a very vocal Wren, and for the first time this year 3 Barnacle Geese put in an appearance
Right, time for a short break.
Happy Birding.
You are probably unlikely to read this until you return from the cooler climes of Majorca. Here, only mad dogs and Devonians go out in the mid-day sun...I will be going out shortly.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Frampton Marsh is becoming one of the top birding sites to visit, at least south of bandit country (Scotland). It must only be a matter of time before Springwatch 'migrates' there. Yellow Wagtails always good to see...and Glossy Ibis although I've seen one in Kenya. Now that would be some twitch!!
The mystery photographer? Must be a delayed exposure surely.