Frampton Marsh - Black Stork

Another fabulous day at Frampton Marsh picking up the black stork from the car as I pulled up.  That never happens and particularly for this bird that has been typically mobile, it was great to have it in full view for a few hours.

Not wanting to linger at the car park, I took a walk round the back of the reserve picking up a nice male merlin, a flyby green sandpiper and spotted redshank, and a little owl by the farm buildings.  The stork reappeared in amongst a group of little egret, preening and roosting during the morning.  This provided an opportunity to check out the pools and saltmarsh.

A group of dunlin held a little stint with an another further along the seawall.  The pacific golden plover was still present but in far more advanced moult than the last visit to Frampton.  A short-eared owl was quartering over the saltmarsh.  There were plenty of decent sized post-breeding flocks of yellow wagtail and pulses of sand martin were moving through. 

Two spotted redshank were feeding on the pools, as were a single juvenile bar-tailed godwit, a few black-tailed godwit and avocet. 

The stork took flight around lunchtime and made a couple of circuits of the reserve, flying low past, dropping into the marsh and then back up again before heading away towards Freiston.