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| Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ http://lbcarchive.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23535 |
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| Author: | Andrew Chick [ Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:10 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
A morning spent at Frampton RSPB and walk to the Witham Mouth. Left at 13:00hrs and the car temperature suggested 17oC.....(!) in December - Whats that all about! Counts probably meaningless, there are a lots of birds on the reserve, I had 56 species in 4 hours.... Can I take this opportunity to wish all the RSPB team at Frampton (John, Toby, Ant, Simon, Chris etc.... sorry don't know all your names) a relaxing Christmas. Thanks for all the hard work, the site looks great and I am looking forward visiting throughout 2016.... Mute Swan 4 Canada Goose 7 Brent Goose c1000+ Shelduck c40 Wigeon c1000+ Gadwall c40+ Teal lots.... Mallard Lots Pintail c25 Shoveler c40 Pochard 15 Tufted Duck 32 Scaup 1 1st Winter male Goldeneye 4 Pheasant 1 Cormorant 5 Little Egret 13 Little Grebe 1 Great Crested Grebe 1 (Tabs Head) Marsh Harrier 1 (adult male over saltmarsh) Moorhen c30 - one group of 19 recorded) Coot 2 Oystercatcher 130 (Tabs Head) Golden Plover c200 (not too many about today?) Lapwing c1500? Curlew c70 Black-tailed Godwit Present Bar-tailed Godwit 2 Turnstone 2 (Tabs Head) Knot 400 (Tabs Head) Ruff c40 (one male showing white head already) Dunlin 20 Redshank c30+ Black-headed Gull 20 Common Gull 10 Herring Gull 3 Great Black-backed Gull 1 Stock Dove 3 Woodpigeon 4 Peregrine 1 (sat on grassland - maybe why the Golden Plover count was so low) Magpie 2 Carrion Crow 1 Blue Tit 3 Skylark 4 Wren 1 Starling 36 Blackbird 1 Fieldfare 133 Redwing 4 Meadow Pipit c20 Chaffinch 4 Greenfinch 14 Linnet 4 Goldfinch 23 Yellowhammer 1 Reed Bunting c30 |
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| Author: | Chris Grimshaw [ Sat Dec 19, 2015 8:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
In addition hen harrier 2 one male at the northern extreme of the reserve and a ringtail out on the marsh wigeon was nearer c5000 the peregrine on the grassland but apparently there was also another two. Again why I saw few golden plover lapwing c2000 brent goose c2500 dunlin 27 avocet 1 wood pigeon c250 starling c1000 |
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| Author: | Graham Catley [ Sun Dec 20, 2015 10:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Chris Grimshaw wrote: In addition hen harrier 2 one male at the northern extreme of the reserve and a ringtail out on the marsh wigeon was nearer c5000 the peregrine on the grassland but apparently there was also another two. Again why I saw few golden plover lapwing c2000 brent goose c2500 dunlin 27 avocet 1 wood pigeon c250 starling c1000 5000 Wigeon ? Exceptional? |
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| Author: | Chris Grimshaw [ Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Not sure of the point of your question mark Graham but if you you think my estimate is somewhat out then I suggest you have a trip down there as there very impressive numbers present. The dammed things were everywhere. Certainly an impressive sight |
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| Author: | Daniel Newton [ Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:46 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Hi Graham, It's been an absolute Wigeon-fest this Autumn/ Winter. Latest blog suggests 6000+ at Frampton earlier this month and up to 10,000 over both Frampton/ Freiston reserves. http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/places ... 15/si.aspx |
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| Author: | Anthony Bentley [ Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:03 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Everyday birders come up to me and say "There's not much about is there?" And all I can do is just look at them bemused! To which I tell them we've got; 5000+ Wigeon, 8000+ Golden Plover, 1000+ Brent Geese, 3000+ Lapwing, 1000 + Teal Plus a host of other birds!! So that's 18,000 birds plus others!!! Not bad considering the relative size of reserve! 60 Pintail to, Males looking rather fine now. Get down to Frampton over the Christmas period it's 100% worth it just for the spectacle. Another side note, we've had a pair of Peregrines hunting together. This is something I've never seen before. One bird flies low like a Sparrowhawk putting up all the Waders and Wildfowl and then the other stoops down taking out an unfortunate victim. I've also noted them calling to each other before they carry out this tactic which on the four times I've seen it they've been successful 50% of the time. https://twitter.com/AnthonyBentley7/sta ... 7343747073 |
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| Author: | John Badley [ Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Thanks Andrew and everyone else. I counted 5,020 wigeon on just my section of the monthly reserve WeBS count last weekend and this was an underestimate as they were still arriving as I was finishing. The great thing as has been mentioned is that counts such as this are now normal, last winter we also had counts of around 5,000 birds and it looks like we may have 6,000+ on a good day this year. The 18,000 birds in total the other day was on an area of just 60 hectares, so quite a spectacle. As the water levels are rising ruff and diving duck are increasing, so perhaps 20,000 birds could be on the cards. You might be interested to hear Frampton again (4th year in a row) won the RSPB's 'Golden Wellie' competition for the 'most wader species' recorded on an RSPB reserve (jointly with Titchwell this year) during Apr-Oct with 33 species. Although we've since added purple sandpiper for 34. Amazingly we didn't get a pectoral sandpiper in 2015, having averaged 4-5 per year recently (two were reported, at least one sounded good, but no descriptions received). I've rarely seen the peregrine behavior seen by Anthony. You wonder why territorial pairs don't employ it more often given how successful it is. Happy Christmas. John |
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| Author: | Graham Catley [ Tue Dec 22, 2015 11:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Where pairs of Peregrines winter together up here they hunt in tandem most of the time: the male usually ends up making the kill before throwing the victim to the female in flight. The male will then typically sit nearby while the female eats what she wants and off the prey is big enough and there is food left the male will feed after the female leaves it. They also stache uneaten prey around roost sites but whether they ever go back and eat it is not clear. Good to hear the Wigeon numbers are so high: a long time since the whole Humber could muster 5000 birds with the exception of the surge tide influx at Alkborough |
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| Author: | John Badley [ Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:48 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Frampton and Witham Mouth 19/12/ |
Co-ordinated RSPB Frampton count today (23/12/15) with Toby and Murray; Whooper swan - 5 Dark-bellied brent goose - 689 Pink-footed goose - 165 Canada goose - 200 Greylag goose - 44 Shelduck - 34 Wigeon - 5,142 Teal - 1,560 Mallard - 140 Pintail - 105 Tufted duck - 39 Shoveler - 31 Pochard - 25 Gadwall - 23 Goldeneye - 5 Scaup - 1 (Reedbed) Little grebe - 10 Moorhen - 21 Coot - 2 Golden plover - 7,045 Lapwing - 3,250 Curlew - 89 Black-tailed godwit - 68 Ruff - 62 Dunlin - 60 Redshank - 55 Peregrine - 2 Red kite - 1 Starling - 650 Linnet - 180 Fieldfare - 80 Tree sparrow - 20 Meadow pipit - 13 Reed bunting - 12 Skylark - 12 Yellowhammer - 10 Rock pipit - 6 Corn bunting - 4 Water pipit - 2 (Marsh Farm reservoir and Sea Bank pool) Stonechat - 1 Waterbirds total - 18,870 (and that was all on a low tide!) Cheers, John |
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