The Lincolnshire Bird Club

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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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

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?

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

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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"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue."

Patch YTD: 155

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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http://anthonybentleywildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

UK life list 310 (Harlequin Duck)
Lincolnshire List 246 (Puffin)
Village (Brigsley) list 99 (Shelduck)

Thanks Anthony

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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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

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

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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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk