A Stilt Sandpiper turned up at Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire all the way from North America. With Kevin C needing to see this species of wader and a chance to, at last, visit this splendid reserve a trip was organised. Kevin drove with just myself for company. The 6am start from Castleton is always needed when having to negotiate the M62 and the notorious traffic around Leeds. We arrived at Frampton having gone through the centre of Boston and made our way to a carpark with around a dozen cars already there. One local said, I have not seen this many cars here, ever. We hurried along to a small crowd of birders, who told us that the Stilt Sandpiper was still present but out of view behind a flock of Black tailed godwits. After around half an hours wait the bird woke from its slumbers and gave fairly good views. The bird`s legs made you understand why its called Stilt, the fine barring on the birds chest was also seen very well. News of a Long billed Dowitcher (the second American) about 200 yards away had us heading towards the channel that the Dowitcher was feeding in. Distant observation of the bird was slightly hampered by lots of vegetation in the way, but with patience the bird could be seen quite well. We headed towards the sea wall and enjoyed the scenery over the wash towards Norfolk. Lots of Little Egrets, godwits and a whole host of waders were seen at this excellent reserve.
What to do next, was soon solved with news of a Ruddy Shelduck at Gailey Reservoir, near Cannock, West Midlands. Into the trusty sat nav went the co-ordinates and away we went passing through places with strange sounding names: - Bicker, Threekingham, Bottesford, Gotham (didnt see Batman though) finally finding Gailey Reservoir and a suitable viewpoint. Sharpe eyed Kevin found the Ruddy Shelduck after a nervous 10 minutes! Lots of Swallows and martins seemed to be feeding up before the long trip south. We headed north towards home along the M6 and without too much trouble reached home after a rather good days twitching /birding. Ta for driving Kevin.
