15 May 10 Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire

An Oriental Pratincole turned up in Lincolnshire on 9th May 10 (last Sunday) and not expecting it to stay very long I did not give much thought to actually seeing it. However, as the days passed it was still being reported and by the time Friday came it was still present and so I decided to travel the 300 miles on the Friday evening to twitch it.

I left Glasgow at 10 pm and by 4 am ish I crossed the Nottinghamshire border into Lincolnshire. Almost immediately a Barn Owl flew across the road and pretty soon a Little Owl (only my second ever) was on top of a tree at the side of the A17. Further along the road a second Barn Owl was seen hunting along the side of a field.

By 5am I was at Frampton. It was an absolutely glorious Spring morning. There were already about a dozen birders on site and soon it became apparent that the bird was on show from close to the East Hide. Never coming close I'm afraid this was about the best I could do:

In the afternoon the bird flew constantly around the main pool, in loose association with 3 Little Gulls, hawking insects. In flight it looked curiously blunt ended, something that is not apparent from its posture on the ground. The upper wings always apppeared dark. The was no obvious white trailing edge to the secondaries and the reddish underwing could be seen.

Frampton Marsh was positively alive with birds. Hedges and ditches all contained either Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Bunting or Reed Warbler. There were at least 4 singing Corn Buntings present:

The scrapes were full of waders. There were lots of Dunlin and several Lapwing and Redshank. There were 3 summer plumaged Curlew Sandpipers and 1 Knot with the Dunlin. There were lots of Ringed Plover and several pairs of Little Ringed Plover. This being a particularly obliging individual:

Other waders on the scrapes of interest included a Whimbrel, several Ruff, Black Tailed Godwit and breeding Avocet:

At least a hundred Dark Bellied Brent Geese still remained, most of whom were seen in flight over the Wash. Other wildfowl included small numbers of Shoveler, Gadwall and Pintail. The Wash also held a large flock of Grey Plover.

A drake Garganey was present on the pool adjacient to the visitors centre. This pool also had several shingle islands with breeding Common Tern:

After a breakfast roll at the local Little Chef I returned to the reserve and spent some time in the 360 degrees hide. There were at least 2 Yellow Wagtail present:

and Skylark:

 

There was no sign of the reported Temminck's Stint but a Marsh Harrier went over early afternoon. 

It had been an absolutely fantastic day !!