After seeing the previous evening that the reported adult Baird's Sandpiper was still being seen at Frampton Marsh RSPB, i made the decision to head south and spend the day at this superb reserve.
I set off nice and early so i could get to Frampton for first light and then cover the whole reserve and see how many species i could record during the visit.
After getting the kit together and pack up in the bag i set off.
To start i covered the area to the south of the reserve and along past the reservoir.
The best sightings along this area included 2 Green Sand, Common Sand, Whimbrel, 2 lovely Great-white Egrets, Green Woodpecker, Cetti's Warbler and a covey of 17 Grey Partridge which was great to see.
The seabank pools area was fairly quiet, apart from a couple of juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, which were nice to see and were a new species for the year for me.
I carried on after watching the dapper Curlew Sands and looked around the pools towards east hide seeing a good count of 19 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, and a juvenile Wood Sandpiper, the former a good count these days and are always great to see.
As i reached the Reedbed Lagoon area, i stopped to look at the Spoonbill flock which gave the usual excellent views, with a couple of begging juveniles following their parents around with their comical head bobbing begging motion.
A good look around here saw no sign of the previous days Pectoral Sandpiper unfortunately, but my first 9 Wigeon of the autumn period were really nice to see.
Walking back towards the seabank pools a lovely juvenile Whinchat gave some nice views and further on ad adult male Peregrine and Merlin gave great views also.
Back to looking along the seabank pools as the hoped for flocks of Waders were beginning to arrive as it was approaching high tide out on the Wash.
This included some brilliant numbers of both Ringed Plover and Dunlin and it wasn't too long before someone called out the Baird's Sand.
After some initial confusion i got onto the bird and then settled down to take some phone-scoped video and photos.
It was really nice to see this adult and compare it with the juvenile I found on my local patch last October. It was pretty much still in full summer plumage, with the dark centred scapulars being larger and more prominent than the neater pale edged scaps of the juvenile last year.
I spent a good hour or so watching this smart bird on and off and it is amazing to think that this species breeds in Canada/Alaska and Greenland, so it is a long way from home.
As i watched the lovely Baird's, other species seen around this area included a really good count of 25 juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and also 2 juvenile Little Stints and along the adjacent fence line a smart juvenile Wheatear fed.
It was great to hear so many Curlew Sands calling along here with that very similar call to Baird's Sands 'prrreet' call.
After enjoying all these lovely waders i walked along the seabank towards east hide again and stopped to have some lunch while i watched the lagoons again seeing the Spotted Reds and Greenshanks, along with a lovely Grey Plover.
After enjoying my food stop, i turned around to see a stunning juvenile Osprey as it flew overhead and out into the Wash, i mentally wished it a safe journey, what a cracking bird!.
I then arrived back at the Reedbed Lagoon and bumped into Wayne and Claire Gillatt and we spent some time chatting and enjoying our day, it was great to catch up and after an hour or so we headed back to our cars and i decided to head home after a superb day.
In the end i managed a decent count of 90 species, of which 24 were waders, a good tally anywhere, this is such a special place.
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| Early Morning Sun Over The Marshes. |
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| Some Phone-scoped Photos Of The Adult Baird's Sandpiper. |
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| Showing Those Super Long Primaries Nicely. |
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