A busy week? Not really! Frampton Marsh 23rd July.

Well not exactly a busy week work wise which meant that I had plenty of time for birding instead!

Monday was spent at one of the UK's finest RSPB reserves and certainly one of the best places to see wading birds in great variety and numbers. Actually Monday morning was spent there since it so bloody hot by midday that we couldn't bear it any longer and beat a retreat back to the air conditioned car! Frampton Marsh sits alongside the Wash near Boston in Lincolnshire and despite being a fairly new reserve, it has only been going for just over 10 years, it is well placed to attract lots of birds both resident and migrant. It is a Mecca for waders and over the proceeding weekend no fewer than 25 species had been observed. The reserve is also fairly quiet and attracts only a small number of visitors during the week, no doubt partly due to the fact that getting there is somewhat of an ordeal because of the amount of traffic in that part of the world. Sometimes I think that I should have been a lorry spotter! We joined another 3 cars in the parking area and walked out into an already warm morning and it was only 8:30. The waders had been concentrated on the North Scrape at the far end of the reserve so we made our way straight there, ignoring the other hides on route. I was mildly surprised to hear both Reed and Sedge Warblers singing heartily away since at my local Otmoor they haven't been singing for a few weeks now. One of the Sedge Warblers very obligingly posed while chuntering away very close to the path. Although looking directly into the sun even I couldn't mess those images up!

In keeping with other areas of the country, Frampton Marsh is parched with much reduced water coverage, very dry grassland and lots of mud. Mud, glorious mud! It's what attracts the wading birds and we could see quite a few dotted around the shallow scrapes. I should add that the biggest area of open water by the visitor centre held (only!) a couple of thousand Black-tailed Godwits and a lot of Avocets too but we'd get to them later. We arrived at the East Hide and settled in to scrutinise the birds that were laid out in front of us. In fact a lot of the birds were laid out, laid down anyway, already suffering in the heat and there wasn't too much activity going on. We noted Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets, Lapwings and Ringed Plovers as well as a few Greylag Geese, which also had a Pink Footed Goose (sporting a neck collar) for company, and a couple of Little Egrets. Some fabulous looking Ruff in varying head colours were dotted around, post breeding now but still looking good. A single Little Ringed Plover flew in and promptly left almost immediately. A mass panic erupted as a juvenile Merlin came careering through, too quick for me to photograph (but at least I had the camera this time!).

Ruff

Ruff

Little Ringed Plover

Having failed to locate any of the less common wading birds we left to have a look at some of the other areas. In truth it was now too hot to go exploring too far so we ignored the sea wall and headed straight to the Reedbed Hide instead. The dreaded heat haze had reared its ugly head again too so long distance viewing was tricky and unfortunately the lack of water meant that most birds were further away than is normal here. Another birder told us that he'd just seen the reported Pectoral Sandpiper on the small scrape behind the hide so I asked him to point it out for me. I had already looked at the same area and hadn't noticed it, only seeing a couple of Common Sandpipers. His Pectoral Sandpiper was what I had identified as a Common but he seemed pretty sure. Although my wader ID skills are not expert, I am fairly confident of getting most of the more common species correct and I just wasn't happy with his diagnosis. The distance between us and the bird didn't help but in my opinion it just didn't look right for a Pec and since the bird bobbed its rear end continually I was pretty sure it was a Common even in the absence of a distinct white collar band. My opinion was also endorsed by another birder that appeared to know his stuff. I took some dodgy photos so maybe anybody reading this may like to offer their opinion too. We did have a small slice of luck when a Wood Sandpiper landed right next to the "dodgy" bird, absolutely no doubts surrounding its own credentials.

The alleged Pectoral Sandpiper. Not convinced and believe it's a Common Sandpiper.

Wood Sandpiper

Common (not Pectoral) Sandpiper left, Wood Sandpiper right.

The Sandpipers had disappeared behind some rushes so we resumed looking out onto the main scrape and at the masses of Godwits in particular. In amongst them we found Oystercatchers, a Common Snipe and more Avocets. A lady advised us that "next to the sleeping Lapwing there is a sleeping Greenshank" so I trained my eyes onto them. After asking for confirmation as to whether I was looking at the right pair of birds and receiving an affirmative reply, I proffered the opinion that the "Greenshank" was in fact a Ruff. Her reply was "no it isn't, it's clearly a Greenshank, when it stood up it looked exactly like this one in my book". I couldn't persuade her otherwise, despite the obvious differences in bill length, plumage, size etc., but believe me, as the photo below proves, it was a Ruff!

Avocet

Ruff! (not Greenshank, not in a million years!)

The mis-ID's didn't end there either when a chap loudly proclaimed to his wife that there were a couple of Spotted Redshanks present, "just look at those striking eye-stripes". He was actually referring to non-breeding plumaged Black-tailed Godwits. At least he got the Yellow Wagtails call right. I think that mis-ID's like these are partly fuelled by there being a sightings board on display to people before they go out onto the reserve. If less common species are listed then obviously folk want to see them and then misidentify more common birds in favour of rarer ones. Differentiating waders from each other is an advanced skill in birding.

part of the Black-tailed Godwit flock

We were advised by the only birder present that I trusted, that going to the 360 Hide would be a waste of time since there was no water at all in that part of the reserve and hence, apart from some Wagtails and Skylarks, didn't hold any birds, so we had another look at the smaller scrape where the Sandpipers had shown before and this time managed to find two Little Stints. Again views were poor, there is a stream in the way so a closer look would be impossible, and the resulting photos are rubbish too but sometimes in this game you can't always get crippling images.

Little Stint left and right with Ringed Plover centre

The ever increasing heat had defeated us, it just wasn't comfortable to be out in it, so we left noting a very unseasonal Whooper Swan on the way and some Wigeon ducklings which I don't think I'd ever seen before, Wigeon being fairly rare breeding birds in the UK. Neither of which I could be bothered to photograph!

Black-tailed Godwit

As trips to Frampton Marsh go this was one of the worst in terms of birds recorded, we only saw 14 species of Waders, a far cry from the 25 of Saturday, but you have to remain realistic, if we had seen half of that total on Otmoor or at Farmoor at this time of year then we'd have been ecstatic!