It's the time of year to seek out our Warblers and I planned a couple of trips to try and find a few for the lens, starting with a sunny day at Frampton on 3rd May. The RSPB periodically drain and refill the scrapes and ponds and graze cattle across the site so you never know what the configuration will be as Spring comes along. A large amount of the water was at low level but this meant some of the birds were focused around particular areas, leading to an opportunity to watch Common Terns fishing and see some nice Ruff.
First though it was time to play 'Warbler quest'. The game often consists of hearing loud songs but seeing very little so I set off with few expectations but to enjoy the lovely weather and the amazing soundtrack.
I did catch some Sedge early on, through the reeds, managing to pick out the birds through the grasses.
It was a windy day and the birds were up in the air quite a lot flying from place to place and seemed to be in position every few metres.
As they popped up I followed, to see where they might be perching next. Often they went low down into the reeds but there were some tantalising glimpses
One of the features at Frampton are bushes and trees that run along the edge of the path to the seawall, breaking the line of the path and offering a bit of shelter and all of a sudden I found a bird singing it's heart out, right in view
posing against a distant background. I've had a few really good encounters with Sedge Warblers and they've all been at Frampton, and the reserve delivered again
A couple of hours yielded some lovely results. Eventually I left the Sedge warblers headed up to photograph some fishing Terns
I had good luck with them soaring about with their catch (a return trip yesterday had them feeding the fish to their young, a real wow, but more of that in a later post)
The wind was in the right direction for the birds to fish into it and me to get some head on views
Among the reeds in the same pond, busy Reed Warblers were also more showy than usual
and they clung to the vigorously blowing reeds, collecting material from downy spider webs which ran betwen the plants. At some points the reeds were blowing from horizontal to vertical and back again but the pair climbed up and down to the web, which was a lot of fun to watch. The webs held despite the wind so little wonder they were a target for nesting material
A little further along the same path were a pretty group of Ruff
I'd seen a male coming into plumage not far from the visitor centre (never seen a full plumage one) but there were lots of birds together here. The group flew around to feed, offering fine views.
It was an all round fantastic day out. I found as the day drew to and end that I had not gone anywhere else but back and forth along the single path to the seawall but there had certainly been enough to look at!
There was just the opportunity to catch a Little Egret wandering around in the scrapes and admire some Brents still on site and flying about, finishing off one of those really memorable days.
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