Another Upton Warren Visit

Last week we took some good friends for an afternoon at Upton. Parking at the sailing club we visited the flashes first, with waders showing particularly well; Avocet of course, a Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Little Ringed Plover (and chick!), Curlew and Lapwing.

There were a few Common Tern about,

along with the usual Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Geese and a single Juvenile Shelduck.

After a late lunch at the Sailing Club Cafe (Good sandwich!!) we popped over to the Moors Pools, visiting all the hides, we added Greylag Goose, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Little Egret, Gadwall, Reed Bunting, a Juvenile Chiffchaff, Buzzard and Kestrel. Plus Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit.
The Little Egret

 and one of the Gadwall.

Surprised not to see any Little Grebe and we missed a Kingfisher by about 20 minutes, but you cant win em all! Be boring if everything turned up all the time! Still 43 species seen in an afternoon which isn't too shabby.

A Lovely Sunny April Afternoon at Upton Warren

After a month devoid of birding for various reasons, we made a welcome return to Upton Warren on Thursday. It was great to be out and the weather was marvellous although a tad cool in a couple of the hides.

We visited all parts of the reserve starting with the Flashes mainly to get our first views of the returning Avocets,

and Little Ringed Plover,

The Shelduck were also looking splendid in the sun.

The birds today all stayed quite distant from the hide so good photo opportunities were limited. Other distant birds at the Flashes were Stock Dove, Gadwall, Shoveler, Lapwing, Mallard,Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gull, Canada Geese, Coot and a couple of Oystercatchers. A couple of Buzzards put in an appearance over the far hill side, briefly causing some excitement among the rest, but that was about it.

So we wandered (drove, much too muddy along the Salwarp!) over to the Moors Pools.
We started at the New Hide, this was pretty quiet, just some Tufted Duck, Coot and Mallard on the water, Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinch and a Bullfinch on the feeders. We sauntered (trying to use different verbs instead of 'walked'!!) up to the Lapwing hide and had coffee (this was our second)
Seeing a couple of Lesser Redpoll on the feeders at Lifestyles on the way.

From the Lapwing Hide we added a single Cormorant, some Teal, another pair of Oystercatchers, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe and a young Fox!, (gave a pair of Canada Geese a bit of a scare, before disappearing back into the reeds). We eventually found after much scanning two Snipe in the scrubby area in front of the Sand Martin box, that made our day as it's one of our favourite birds.

We now strolled back, purchasing a couple of Goose Eggs on the way and continued to the concrete hide. Here a Gadwall gave me a couple of nice shots,

as did a Dunnock

and a Reed Bunting

Finally from the tower hide a pair of Tufted Duck gave me a nice-ish photo,

So a very nice afternoon totalling 43 species in all. I haven't mentioned them all of course. We then completed a lovely afternoon with Afternoon Tea at Webbs, courtesy of my cousin Jane and family, who bought us this for a significant birthday!

Upton Warren early June

Due to a trip to Scotland and Northumberland and a lot of other things going on, I haven't had chance to do a post about a visit we made to Upton Warren NR back on the 3rd. So as my memory isn't what it was, I will keep it brief and just post a few pics, the primary goal was to see the Avocet chicks as we know that we probably won't get many chances to get to Upton before they are all grown up, but we start with some Canada Geese,

 Now the Avocets,

 some youngsters are almost fully grown,

 but there is still some squabbling among the adults,

 a few Lapwing showed well,

 as did the Little Ringed Plovers

 as did the one LRP chick (although sad to say from reserve reports I don't think it made it)

A very young Avocet,

Jackdaw,

 Little Grebe,

 and a Willow Warbler

A loveley afternoon as usual.

A 'Tern' up for the books at Upton

On Sunday we took our good friends Keith & Liz to Upton for the afternoon, primarily to see the Avocets and their broods. I did look at the Birds Forum on the morning to see if anything else was happening and saw that a Black Tern had been seen at the Sailing Pool about 8:30 in the morning, I didn't hold up any hope of seeing it as we weren't planning to get there until 2ish, but to my and our surprise it was still there zooming around the pool picking up what it could. I tried some photos but trying to focus as it flew around was nigh on impossible, I did get a record shot though:

So a lifer for us and on our favourite reserve, bonus!

We carried on to the hide overlooking the flashes, where of course plenty was going on:
Lapwing with 3 chicks (the 3rd is just under the adult..)

 Little Ringed Plover

 Avocet

 Avocet young

 Lapwing chick

 Shelduck and ducklings

We then went over to the Moors Pools, again admiring the Black Tern, who was still cavorting around the Sailing Lake.
Mute Swan on approach!

Juvenile Long-tailed Tit

Vociferous Reed Bunting

Canada Goose

Sedge Warbler

Greenfinch

TTFN!

RSPB Frampton Marshes

Earlier this month we took a trip to Lincolnshire for the Waddington Airshow. (Perhaps this means there might be a non bird post in the offing!) We booked ourselves a B&B and stopped a couple of days this allowed us to fit in Frampton the day before and a also a shorter visit the day after, so this post covers both.

The first visit gave us a lifer within a minute! There was a Turtle Dove sitting in a tree viewable from the Car Park, we got some decent views but sadly I hadn't got the camera ready before it flew away, but a fantastic start to the day!

So to celebrate a life first it was time for a coffee at the benches by the Visitor Centre, where a Swallow was posing on the TV Aerial:

We walked clock wise around the reserve from the Visitor Centre, with some good views of the massed Black and Bar tailed Godwits out on the reserve:

As we walked around the Reed Buntings were showing well:

and a Linnet popped up, but didn't get close, so a record shot will have to suffice:

The Linnet was with a couple of Reed Warblers, however I didn't manage a shot before they disappeared back into the bushes, hey-ho. Of interest was this species of Amphibious Sheep:

There were plenty of Avocets about still with chicks:

 There were also plenty of Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Sedge Warbler, Little Egret, Black-headed Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Tufted Duck, Canada Geese, Greylags and Mute Swan.

From the 360 hide we saw both Ringed and Little Ringed Plover with chicks which was great. From there we walked back to the Visitor Centre and had lunch after which we walked up the road to the dyke, on the way finding a Little Grebe nesting by a post:

After that we walked along the dyke, getting some better views of the Egrets:

At this point we had a duck that really confused us, I took some very bad photos as it was quite a distance hoping to identify it later. Once we get back to the digs I looked at the photo enlarging on the camera as best as I could but hadn't got a clue, even looking in our field guide, so I trawled the internet and found a photo of it taken some months earlier... An Australian Wood Duck!! an escapee that has taken up residence at Frampton.

The next day was the Airshow at Waddington, so for those interested here's a link:
RAF Waddington Airshow 2014

So before leaving Lincolnshire we went with Jo & Jimmy who had joined us for the airshow back to Frampton in the hope of seeing the Turtle Dove again as they had never seen one. Even before parking we spotted the Dove again in the same tree as before, I stopped the car to show them (they were travelling behind us) but by the time they stopped and I pointed it out, it had of course flown off!!

So the plan was to walk along the path where the doves are known to be, we could hear them but not see them very frustrating, we were patient but to no avail until we came out into the farm land and I found one, again it was playing hard to get and flew off, we kept it in sight until it disappeared over some distant trees. Not a great sighting for them, but a sighting!

We also knew that there was Glossy Ibis about, this would be our second sighting if we could find it and Jo & Jimmy's first, so we asked the RSPB volunteers and headed of where it had list been seen and this time the birding gods were playing ball:

The sun was in the wrong place or the bird was so a silhouette, but better than my photo from Middleton Lakes earlier in the year.

We then went to the 360 hide again for the plovers:

and a coffee of course! Some ducks did intrigue us, there were 4, no not the Ozzie Escapee, we decided they were Wigeon who had decided to stay put. Oh one bird I forgot to mention from the previos visit was Great-crested Grebe, there were a good dozen dozing happily on the weed out in the lagoon again too distant for a decent snap.

From here we wandered back the long way around and picked up a Yellowhammer:

One last walk to the dyke was done, just in case there were any Marsh Harriers about, but no luck, we did however see this juvenile Swallows waiting for their parents:

So after this Jo & Jimmy left and headed for Lincoln, we elected to stay just a little longer and were rewarded with a couple of Ruff:

and an early Starling murmaration!!

So that's it for Frampton, however we weren't going home! We had made this a two centre trip and were heading north to Northumberland for a few days, one of our favourite places in Britain (apart from all the others) and a jaunt over to the Farnes.

So another post to follow as soon as I can.