Gibralter Point 26th -
Several members of our party arrived at the RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh before lunch on the Friday and over lunch at The Old Moore Arms in Frampton, told the latecomers that there was not much to be seen.
This being the case, the decision was taken that we would go on to the RSPB reserve at Freiston Shore for some afternoon bird watching.
Among the Brent and Greylag geese was a dark phase Snow Goose which was to be the subject of a long discussion in the evening. The reserve also produced up to eight Little Egrets on the salt
marsh, a Kingfisher, Redshank, and Grey Plover. A Knot, Dunlin and many ducks were on the lake. There was an extraordinary number of blackbirds feeding on the berries as well as good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare.
We arrived at Gibraltar Point ready for our evening meal at five-thirty, followed later in the evening by a visit to The Vine Hotel for liquid refreshment.
Many of us decided that we would have a pre-breakfast walk on the Saturday morning. Going outside at seven o’clock we found that a very high tide of 7.4 metres was still coming in with some ten centimetres of water covering the car park. The only person with a pair of wellingtons suddenly found his boots were in great demand so that other members of the party could reach their cars to retrieve their own boots. The path to the beach was flooded, as was most of the salt marsh. We managed to cross the high ground to reach the road, where we headed for Jackson’s Marsh hide.
Sitting here we watched a Barn Owl quartering the field. It passed close by the hide many times and even turned its head to watch us. This continued for about fifteen minutes before it flew over the wall into the plantation area
Later, we found that it had a roost sight in the end wall of the warden’s house where one of our party found an owl pellet.
After breakfast, a Marsh Harrier was seen flying past the centre. We all split up to go to different parts of the reserve. The tide had sufficiently receded to allow access to the beach. It was quite windy as we scanned the waders on the beach. Unfortunately, by this time the tide had gone out a long way so the birds were very distant so we decided to head for the woodland prior to lunch.
After lunch, where we discussed all that we had seen, we all set off to explore the areas that we had missed that morning.
Knot over the sand dunes at high tide
The Snow Goose(?) at Freiston
Grey Plover
Waders seen that day included Snipe, Jack Snipe, Woodcock, a single Avocet, Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Redshank, Golden and Grey Plovers plus Lapwing and Curlew. There were many Teal, Wigeon & Shoveler. Little grebes were on every stretch of water.
On the Sunday, again we set off before breakfast. As we passed Jackson’s Marsh the Barn Owl was again hunting. We continued to the Tennyson Sands hide hoping to see the Jack Snipe and a Whimbrel seen by other members of our party on the previous day, but did not manage to find either bird. A flock of ten Whooper Swans flew in.
Returning for breakfast we were again told that the Marsh Harrier had flown by.
After breakfast we had to vacate our rooms. This done, we set off for our last session of birding prior to lunch and the journey home.
We again returned to the hide we were in pre-breakfast, a flock of Pink-footed Geese flew into the field across the lake.
A flock of Knot and a couple of Greenshank were reported to be in the Mere, but had moved on when we eventually arrived in the hide.
This was another great week-end at Gibraltar Point. There had been many improvements in the two years since our last visit. A café has been added in the shop area. There were new single showers in the accommodation block
All twenty two of attendees enjoyed the excellent home made meals provided by Barbara and Peter Pound on site.
The weather was reasonable with just a little drizzle in the morning.
We are proposing our next weekend at this venue in Spring 2009.
Dave Jones (Photographs by Phil Farrer)
One of the “fall” of Blackbirds