23 members of the Louth U3A Fauna, Flora and Ornithology Group which includes a number of LWT members visited RSPB Frampton Marsh on 25 February. It was the bright sunny day in the middle of a wet week. We had hardly parked the cars when we were awed by the vast numbers of Golden plovers swirling in the sky with Brent geese and Lapwings filling the horizon below the plovers. Mike, the RSPB duty warden, gave us a quick brief on what had been seen in the last day or two at a time of high spring tides.
We stopped at the first track junction to use the telescopes to look at Ruff, Gadwall and a whole range of ducks, geese and waders. We split our forces with a party going to the sea wall and a smaller group making their way past Teal and Wigeon galore to the Long Hide. More ducks including Tufties, Pochards and Mallards screened a gorgeous Pintail drake whilst a Goldeneye spent most of its time submerged.
We spent a long time in the ‘360 hide’ and were rewarded with sightings of Pintail ducks and the spectacle of over 200 Brent geese whiffling onto the lagoon in front of us whilst the Golden plovers continue to fill the sky. Eat your heart out Starlings I reckon Golden plovers and the Snettisham Knot and Dunlin make an even better display. On our return to base the feeders outside the Visitors’ Centre were very popular with a range of finches and Tree sparrows.
We enjoyed a late, noisy lunch at the Black Bull in Kirton where we totalled up the number of species that we had seen between us – it came to 45! A range of 20 species is a good day so what a splendid morning. Had we counted each bird seen the total would have been in the thousands.
Ray Woodcock FFOer in Chief 25 February 2015
Bird list: Little grebe, Cormorant, Cattle egret, Grey heron, Mute swan, Greylag goose, Canada goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Pintail, Shoveller, Pochard, Tufted duck, Goldeneye, Buzzard, Kestrel, Red-legged partridge, Pheasant, Coot, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Ringed plover, Golden plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Ruff, Black-tailed godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Common gull, Skylark, Blue tit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion crow, Starling, Tree sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed bunting
