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°.


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…


Mute Swans making an early morning flight.


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


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.

IT’S ABOUT TIME…..

….This is my first post since the start of the year and I guess most of you will have now fully recovered from all the excesses and celebrations and, despite all the rain, be well into the delights and discoveries of 2014, it certainly seems that way when reading all of your excellent posts.
The main reason that I’ve not done a post till now is due to a large dose of apathy brought on by starting the year off with a mega cold/flu(?) that lasted from Boxing day through the most of the first three weeks of January. Then for the last couple of weeks it’s been a matter of finding the time, there seems to have been lots of those little important jobs that couldn’t be left any longer and needed to be done.  The third reason/excuse is that, although I’ve been out and about on a few occasions (most times with Keith), I’ve not managed to take many decent photographs.

So, after all of the excuses here’s a few almost half decent images!

This first one was taken on New Years Day when Keith and I, after visiting RSPB Titchwell in Norfolk, went to the nearby Holkham Nature Reserve. The day day had turned cold and wet with a steady downpour, it wasn’t doing my cold any good!  Little did we expect to find this many people out in the cold and the rain, the road is about a mile long, there were so many cars and people that we had difficulty finding anywhere to park the car!

What’s it like in the Summer??

A few flight shots…


Mute Swan  RSPB Frampton Marsh Lincolnshire - 2nd.January


Cormorant  Caldecotte Lake Buckinghamshire – 23rd. January


Male Pochard  WWT Welney Norfolk – 27th. January



Mallard WWT Welney Norfolk - 27th. January



Lapwing RSPB Frampton  Lincolnshire – 3rd. February


Part of a large flock of Black-tailed Godwit  RSPB Frampton – 3rd. February

A MEGA DAY OUT - PART TWO...AGAIN!

 

Part Two of a day out with Keith where we visited RSPB Framton Marsh in Lincolnshire and RSPB Titchwell in Norfolk.

After an excellent three hours or so at Frampton, and the obligatory cup of coffee, it was time to move on to our next destination...the magnificent  RSPB reserve at  Titchwell.

Thanks to excellent chauffeuring by Keith,  53 miles and 1 3/4 hours later we arrived in the rather busy (it usually is!) Titchwell car park.

A short walk to the visitor centre shop to check the sightings board to see what was about and  as is normal when you're in a crowded area I kept hearing snippets of conversations and the two words that kept being mentioned were Barn Owl!  Anyway, on through the shop and back outside to check to see what birds were coming to the feeding station (not many as it happens!) and there it was again!... someone mentioned Barn Owl  "just there,  sitting on a fence post"  No! it couldn't be, it's one o'clock in the afternoon Barn Owls don't come out at this time of day?... Oh yes they do!...a quick walk, of the twenty or so yards, in the direction of the pointing fingers and we were just in time to see a beautiful Barn Owl lift off from the fence post and give us a short fly by before disappearing behind the trees and out of sight!...a truly wonderful few minutes, and just to add to the moment, a guy standing close by then called out Stonechat! and, sure enough, we were all soon watching a (distant) pair of Stonechats as they kept flitting from the ground up into some bramble bushes...and in the far distance a Hen Harrier was hunting over the reed beds.... the day just got a whole lot better!

Barn Owl

We decided to forgo visiting the hides for the time being and instead to make our way along the main path that leads to the beach.

As always, the path was rather busy.

There were lots of other birds and waterfowl around and we were soon able to see, amongst the usual candidates Shelduck, Avocet, Shoveler,  a single  Greenshank and lots of Curlew and Redshank.

Curlew

The next big surprise was seeing the large flock of Golden Plover (circa 4000 according to the sightings board!) resting on the islands in front of the main hide and what a beautiful sight as they intermittently took to the air and sparkled and glittered in the sunlight just like golden confetti.

Just a small fraction of the Golden Plover in front of the Parrinder Hide

On past the hide and onto the next lagoon where a group of Teal were busy dabling on the shallow water.

Teal (male)

And further along, another big surprise.. a beautiful pair of Pintail were 'showing' right up close to the path seemingly unconcerned by the amount of people passing by just a few feet away!

A stunning male Pintail

And a Black Headed Gull saying "I may not be as beautiful as a Pintail but look, I can jump on water"

Out onto the beach now and for once the wind wasn't blowing a gale, and we weren't getting sandblasted, as is normally the case here!

The clubhouse for the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club across the water at Brancaster

Here we saw Oystercatcher, Turnstone and Sanderling 'working' the strand line looking for  something nice to eat.

Oystercatcher

Turnstone

This 'friendly' Black Headed Gull followed us along the beach and was never more than a couple of yards away.

On the way back to the hides we had a fleeting glimpse of a Water Rail as it quickly disapeared back into the undergrowth  and eagle eyed Keith did it again and spotted a couple of Snipe on the edge of a distant island ( he's got a knack when it comes to spotting Snipe!!)

Even I could see this one as it posed right in front of the hide window!

Keith also located a flock of Twite as they flew across the water to a far bank.

We were into the late afternoon now and the sun was beginning to set and it was time to make our way back to the car for a final cup of coffee and the long journey home.

It was a very successful and enjoyable day with 41 different species seen here, making a grand total of 57 different species for the day with 25 of them being new year ticks, and one a life tick (the Twite), and also add onto that sightings of Rabbit, Brown Hare and Muntjac Deer and it was truly...A Mega Day Out.