The weather was forecast to be drawing in and so Kev and I decided to go somewhere with hides, and where better than RSPB Frampton Marshes. The early part of the day was forecast to be better and so we decided that we would make a day of it and go early, stopping at Smithy Fen on the way - the regular white stork had been seen and reported the night before. Despite our attempts the bird continues to elude me (although Kev picked it up when it visited BCN Wildlife Trust Summer Leys when calling in for the Kentish plover earlier in the year).
We arrived at Frampton Marshes and went out onto the reserve spotting lots and lots of birds - the numbers of black-tailed godwits are continuing to increase, as are ruff. The avocet numbers are now increased due to the number of chicks joining the adults, and eleven spoonbills congregated on an island. In amongst the blackwits we found three red knot - new for the year. There was not a single sign of a curlew sandpiper yet.
We entered the East hide having found nothing new and found that the water was full of birds, including a further 5+ red knots. Avocets were well represented. A few ruff chased each other another around to our right, and a single grey plover was perched on the end of a spit. Try as we might, we couldn't find the red-necked phalarope that Kev had seen there a couple of days earlier - it had departed, as many birds do, on Friday night. Four Mediterranean gulls (two adults and two juveniles) huddled together in the worsening conditions.
While in the hide we heard that an American wigeon had been seen in flight in the direction of the Reedbed hide. Kev kept my space as I left to talk to a line of birders on the seawall. They hadn't found the phalarope either and although they'd seen the wigeon, it was now out of view. Further along the wall there was a small flock of curlews and a single whimbrel, but at such great distance that there was no point taking a photograph.
I returned to the hide and we scanned some more picking up a handful of ringed and little ringed plovers, but other than seeing that a spoonbill had relocated to this scrape there was nothing more to add. A heavy downpour decided for us that we would stay a little longer.
Eventually we made for the Visitor’s Centre and lunch, hoping there might be a report of the phalarope. On the way we stopped to see how much the black-winged stilt chicks had grown, and came across an out-of-season pink-footed goose.
Almost back to the Centre we spotted another small group of red knot and a couple of preening spoonbills. I've never seen these birds trying to preen one another, not an easy task with their substantial beaks, but it looked as if they were being very tender.
While having lunch we were updated that the white stork had just been reported at Smithy Fen and so returned to the car and made for there. Unfortunately, on arrival it appeared that we were again too late, and the bird had gone. We did have a few redshanks, green and common sandpipers, little ringed and ringed plovers, a greenshank, a ruff, a great white egret, and a single avocet, but not the main event ... sometime soon ...
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