Monday 5 January 2015

A Sunny Sunday Outing



Although the title of this post sounds good it doesn’t quite tell the entire story, let me explain…..Last Saturday I received an email from Keith inviting me to join him on Sunday for our first big outing of the year to the RSPB  Frampton Marsh reserve in Lincolnshire and, of course, I didn’t need asking twice!   A check on the weather forecast on Saturday evening didn’t make for good reading.. it was predicting frost and freezing fog for most of the day on Sunday!!
As is usual with our outings we always like to make an early start….so it was up at 4.30am (all bright eyed and bushy tailed!!) a quick check out of the window confirmed that the weather guessers had got it right again….thick fog and, for the short distance that I could see, everything covered in a liberal coating of white icing….lovely?
So, with warm clothes, hat, cloves  and camera gear checked and sorted…and the car de-iced!!  I set off for the frosty/foggy 30min. drive to Keith’s.  After a quick chat and the transfer of all my stuff over to Keith’s car it was just after 6am when we began our journey…into the unknown..fog!   As is usual Keith did a splendid job of getting us safely to our destination and amazingly, after a two hour drive in varying levels of fog and ice, just as we arrived the fog disappeared and the sun started to rise into what would turn out to be, for most of the day, a clear blue sky!  Although the sun was shining it stayed frosty all day, with a high of only 4°.

Frampton1 1  K O'H
Keith watching the birds while topping up his tan!!

Unfortunately most of the birds were concentrated in the distant unfrozen areas of water and so remaining too far away for any decent photographs. However, I did manage a few flight shots…

Frampton1 2  Mutes
Mute Swans making an early morning flight.

Frampton1 3  DBB
Dark-bellied Brent Goose..there were hundreds of these on the reserve with large skeins constantly flying overhead.

Frampton1 4  Curlew
Curlew…lots of these about too, feeding on the wet grassland.


In total we spent 5+ hours exploring the reserve in the sunshine (and cold!) and saw around 50 different species of birds including large flocks of Wigeon, Golden Plover and Lapwing.

And the strange thing?…about three miles down the road on the return trip home, the sun disappeared and it became dark and dingy as we were once again enveloped (all the way home!) by….FOG!!

All in all an enjoyable (sunny) Sunday outing.



10 comments:

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

HI Trevor Gosh our Sunday here was lovely but you two certainly made the most of the day and as you say Keith got you safely to and from the reserve. I like the shot of the Swans in flight. the lighting was lovely.

Douglas Mcfarlane said...

You made the right choice heading for the coast(ish) the fog never cleared around here all day.Great shot of the Brent and Curlew

Roy Norris said...

What a lovely day Trevor. Love the shot of the Brent. Hope Keith had his lip balm on.{:))

ADRIAN said...

It was worth the trip. The swans are always good for an image.
Glad it panned out fine.

holdingmoments said...

Yea, a cracking day Trev, and the sun god smiled on us all day at the reserve.
Great flight shots.

The Herald said...

Hi Margaret...yeh, Keith always does a good job in getting us around safely. It was lovely to get out of the fog!!...[;o)

Thanks Douglas..we got it right,weather wise..for once!...[;o)

Thanks Roy, we had a good (sunny!) day. Yeh...lippy, shades and a little triangle shaped piece of cardboard for his nose..lol!...[;o)

Adrian, Keith did a grand job, as always. We had a good day...I can never resist a Swan shot!...[;o)

Thanks Keith. Yeh, it was a good day all round...[;o)

Bob Bushell said...

Nice day out Trevor. The Dark-bellied Brent Goose is out of world, well done.

FOREST SNAPPER said...

Looks as if you got the best of the weather for your trip out.

peter

The Herald said...

Peter, it was a good day...[;o)

theconstantwalker said...

Hi Trevor sorry I am a bit late on this post... the Curlew flight shot is fantastic.