A Good Selection at Frampton Marsh

2nd March 2020

Still fairly quiet on the bird front so time for a change of scene and pay a visit to Frampton Marsh.  A little bit further than our normal travel limit of 1.5 hours, but a superb place for a wander round and it never disappoints. What I love is the chirpy welcome you get from the House Sparrows in the car park.

The meadows next to the car park were extremely flooded, certainly the highest I have ever seen them, and had attracted both Sky Larks and Ruff, a rather unusual combination. Luckily the sun came out to make life a little easier.

And further out in the meadows was a flock of some 4000 Golden Plovers which have been present for most of the winter. The resident Peregrine had taken up position on a fence post at the back of the meadow and caused havoc every 10 minutes or so.

In front of one of the hides a pair of Goldeneye were making the most of the deep water.

There were good numbers of both Brent Geese and Shelduck which spent much of their time moving around the reserve and also commuting from the reserve to the saltmarsh allowing some flight shots. The Wigeon were a little more sedate spending much of the time asleep.

A flock of Avocets shone in the afternoon sun, mostly roosting on one of the islands, but all took to the sky whenever danger threatened.

But the stars of the show today were the pair of Stonechats along one of the trails, which were feeding from a barbed wire fence and apparently totally oblivious to our presence. What a great way to end to a great day.