With the prospect of 3 wader species from America on offer,today's visit to Frampton Marsh RSPB was a no brainer and i travelled south through the Lincolnshire Wolds to my destination.
On arrival at Frampton,i expected it to be pretty busy,so parked in the overflow car park and got the kit together for my day at this superb reserve.
While walking along the path towards the 360 hide i enjoyed some lovely close views of a Great-white Egret,still an uncommon species locally to me and it was great to soak up the views.
First target was the juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper,but after an aborted attempt to view Middle Scrape from the 360 hide,i had to make do with a group of other observers to view the scrapes from the adjacent pathway.
After a while i located the bird,but it wasn't close and i took in the birds features as it spent most of its time feeding away from the main flock in drier areas of mud.
This was only my second Semi-p after a bird which Neil Drinkall expertly found at Alkborough Flats in August 2010 and thus becomes Lincolnshire's 3rd county record.
The bird gave us all a bit of a runaround today,due to the flock being occasionally flushed by raptors and i never did get any close,close views as some had from the 360 hide.
While scanning through the wader flocks it was great to enjoy some superb views of at least 8 juvenile Little Stints,at least 3 Curlew Sandpiper,Greenshank,Spotted Redshank and the commoner species.
Eventually we got some nice views of American wader number 2,the very elegant Lesser Yellowlegs.
I attempted to try and take some video of the bird,but it was always in the edge of the scrape and most of the time behind vegetation,but some lovely views were gained of the bird,my 4th in the county after a bird was seen at Bagmoor Lake in 2012.
After enjoying some views of the Lesser Legs,it was onto the floodbank for the 3rd species of 'Yank' for the day,the Buff-breasted Sandpiper.
On arrival at it's chosen area,we found it feeding in amongst the salicornia and it gave impeccable views,what a lovely species these are and for me certainly the star of the show today.
Its amazing to think these three American species have travelled at least 3,000 miles to arrive on our shores,a mean feat for any bird.
The Buff-breasted Sandpiper was the 21st species of wader for the day for me personally,which is impressive indeed.
A bonus flyby of a Glossy Ibis happened while we were watching the lovely Buff-breast and added to the already excellent list of species seen during the day.
We watched as the bird briefly touched down on the wet grassland before doing a couple of circuits and then headed off South West towards Norfolk.
The sheer numbers of species here on this reserve really is down to the fantastic work the RSPB team do in keeping the site in tip top condition and they really should be congratulated and it is certainly worth every penny of my membership!.
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