My regular Saturday birding schedule had been cancelled due to Kevin Heath having something else to do - how very could he! I'd also had to work late on Friday in any case and really needed a lie in after a long working week. So, it was Saturday night when I decided that on Sunday morning I'd go and see if I could see the European Roller that had been showing in Timberland, Lincolnshire. This bird had showed well the previous day and been reported up until dark on the Saturday evening - there was a chance I'd be able to find it if I went early.
The journey was uneventful, and I was on site by just after 7.30am finding two birders already in residence. I joined them but as I approached, they turned and shared that the bird had not showed at all - damn. I joined them and began a 2½hr vigil which unfortunately didn't yield any sightings - the bird had already moved on - it transpired that a hobby had attacked the bird the night before but that it had returned to its normal perch and appeared likely to stay - it hadn't. While seeing hobby and golden plover in flight was very pleasant, as was a single whinchat in the fiedls ahead, I'd dipped. Fortunately, I had planned to stay out longer and made for RSPB Frampton Marsh.
The extension to Visitor's Centre is still being constructed and so porta-loos are provided on arrival. I immediately made for the 360° Hide as there had been reports of curlew sandpiper there in recent times and found quite a few people already in place. As I entered the hide there was a buzz as a pectoral sandpiper was showing at distance - two younger chaps and a dad were the main observers and they shared the location. I'd considered dropping into Eyebrook Reservoir on the way home for one, but this was a real bonus. I found some space on the benches and set up my scope - with the help of some already on the bird I located it feeding with dunlin and ruff, working right across the vista.
Out in the scrape there were so many ruff but also numbers of curlew sandpipers - 26 counted over the reserve. There were dunlin and a single knot in amongst a flock of black-tailed godwits. Two spoonbills slept in the distance, occasionally preening and going back to sleep. I spent quite a time here and the personnel changed a few times - one group picked out a little stint far out to the left. I'm glad I was carrying my scope as I was able to join the viewing of this bird - it would have been impossible just through bins.
In front of the spoonbills I picked out a couple of spotted redshanks and over time counted up to six - they are great to see but having experienced them in their fine black livery they are not quite as appealing. The pectoral sandpiper had gone AWOL behind the vegitation on an island - it had probably flown from there but no one had managed to follow it. Avocet fed across the mud as did black-tailed godwits, some getting closer than those by the spoonbills. Two pink-footed geese waddled to an island to my left, one with a damaged wing and a single barnacle goose wandered about in the same area, appearing to have no apparent purpose.
Eventually I thought it was time to make a circuit of the reserve and as I did, I bumped into the couple of lads and the dad from earlier, reporting to them that a little stint was showing - they also passed on the sighting of a lone whimbrel which I later saw but only briefly. There were also small flocks of yellow wagtails but again at distance. It wasn't long before I was at the turn and deciding whether to make for the car or return to the 360° Hide - the hide won and as I arrived I could see Ricky Sinfield who I've met several times at Summer Leys and Pitsford Reservoir. He'd been following the curlew sandpipers and I joined in, however still hoping to get better images of the pectoral sandpiper.
After ten minutes or so the birds were put up a couple of times, the first we could see why but the second had a hobby tear passed the hide chasing what appeared to be a hirundine - swallow, house and sand martins were all visible across the reserve. The hobby passed so close we thought it might pass through! This mixed up all the birds and we started to scan again - at this point the chaps and dad returned and they again were first to spot the pectoral sandpiper, off to our right and distant but in better conditions than before. Having just seen a hobby, a lone and rather vulnerable looking moorhen chick swam across very much in the style of "there once was an ugly duckling". Hopefully it makes it. A rather bright yellow wagtail appeared on the bank opposite.
Three RSPB Volunteers dropped in, and then a fourth. We continued watching the pectoral sandpiper but one of them spotted that the little stint had appeared out and ahead. It didn't show for long, and our attention returned to the pectoral sandpiper. It appeared to be working its way along the water's edge and closer, maybe we'd get relatively good views? ... everyone else seemed to be content with the views they’d had, but Ricky and I waited for the bird to work closer and indeed it did. A couple on other chaps appeared and I presume knew Ricky well. Time was getting on and so I made my way back to the car stopping only to take some photos of some swallow fledglings being fed on the edge of their nest - a very entertaining end to a good day at Frampton.
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