RSPB Frampton Marsh 31/07/26

It's been a long, long while. Too long. School and various other things have just gotten in the way of birding. Every time I seem to be free, there's nowhere worth going, and whenever there is somewhere worth going, I've not been free. It happens. But, currently we are as a family on holiday on the Cambridgeshire-Norfolk border... plenty of good birds about. So when a free morning was available today, Dad and I grasped the opportunity to head to a brilliant reserve- RSPB Frampton. I've never been there before, but with consistent reports of a very special wader there over the past few weeks, we thought this would be perfect.

We left at 7:50 and stopped off at a McDonald's to pick up two Sausage Sandwiches with Ketchup. Absolutely mint. So nice. Anyways, birds. After a bit of a problem with a closed road, we arrived just past 9 o'clock and headed straight into the reserve. 

Immediately obvious were plenty of Greylags and Little Egrets, and after walking a bit further, more things became visible. A small channel held a Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Ringed Plover, and a Lapwing.

We continued on and spotted some Spoonbill in the distance, so moved on towards the Reedbed Hide where we would be closer. 

We came to a small spot halfway up the path to the hide where we could see the Spoonbill much closer.

We stopped to scan the area for a bit, and soon I spotted another Ruff on the far bank, and at least one more Spotted Redshank. Avocets were everywhere, and a few Swallows were flying about. Then, as I was looking through my bins at the water that was partially obscured by grass on the close bank, an incredible sight filled my eyes. A stunning, sleek and slender bird. This was it- the Black-winged Stilt. Incredible! I rattled off a few blurry shots before finally focusing on the bird.

It seemed perfectly happy just feeding along the shoreline, not bothered by our presence at all. At points it would come out into the open to give incredible views.

Truly an incredible bird. I have seen these before, in Spain, but never before here in England- so a British lifer. Brilliant. Black-winged Stilts are migrants in most of Europe, wintering in Africa. Although very scarce here in the UK, quite a few still turn up, with the very occasional pair actually breeding. Stunning birds, really.

A Ruff was on the other side still, and after a bit more watching, all the birds flew up.

When all the birds landed, the Black-winged Stilt had just popped over the other end of the water- and had been joined by the other one that had been about! Two Black-winged Stilts. Brilliant!

Another Spotted Redshank was visible, and with the Black-winged Stilts not going anywhere, we walked the rest of the path and went into the hide. 

In the hide, more Blackwits were visible, along with Ringed and two Little Ringed Plovers. Pied Wagtails were everywhere, a Heron made an appearance at the back, and the two Black-winged Stilts were still visible.

What appeared to be a Curlew Sandpiper was visible right at the back(very distant tho), and some more Dunlin were about.

We stayed for a while longer before moving on, seeing as nothing new was turning up.

Two of the hundreds of Greylag Geese were casually strolling down the path, and a very smart Marsh Harrier was hunting.

We walked for a while towards the East Hide, seeing Linnets, Goldfinches, Skylarks, a Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk, plenty of Reed Warblers, and a few other bits and bobs along the way.

Dad and I decided to go to the visitor centre to get some drinks, so we walked back the way we had come, past the Reedbed Hide and down the path. After finding out the card machine was sadly broken, I quickly checked BirdGuides to find out that a White-rumped Sandpiper had been reported. We quickly walked back to the hide, hoping this scarce wader would still be present, but as we entered the hide, we heard that it had just flown off. Gutting. Luckily, though, the Black-winged Stilts were both close up and showing very well...

In the flock of waders at the back, more Spotted Redshank were visible, along with another Ruff, but our attention was taken by the incredible stilts feeding right in front of the hide. Truly incredible

The two of them joined up together before flying slightly further away.

One came slightly closer again, but sadly, with time pressing, we had to call it a day and walk back to the car.

Well, what a day it was. A British lifer, accompanied by plenty of other stunning and scarce birds. A disappointing dip of the White-rumped Sandpiper, but it happens. I'll get one some day, I'm sure. Hopefully, as the summer holidays are now in full swing, I'll be back to more birding and have chances to actually go and see stuff. It's been a bit odd not birding much. I've missed it a lot. Anyways, I have things to do and a place to be soon, so I'm not going to draw this out much longer. I hope you've enjoyed it, and hopefully this will be the start of more birding again....

Thanks for reading:)

Pulborough Brooks 09/06/26

Dad and I have been planning to go to Pulborough Brookes for ages, so with a Monday finally free for the both of us, we decided to head over even though the weather looked a bit dodgy. Our aim was just to enjoy what was there, and we were hoping we might see some good birds as well. And, well, Pulborough delivered.

We arrived at 9:00, with no rain forecast for another half hour or so. We walked through the gate and headed towards the West Mead hide. 

Once there, I got everything out of the bag just as the slight feeling of rain in the air manifested itself in a few drops hitting the water. Not that there was much of it. 

After 15 minutes or so of scanning, with only some Mallards and a Mute Swan visible, I found some Lapwing on the other shore of the "lake."

Normally, I spend much longer in this hide, but Dad and I decided it would be best to walk over to the Winpenny Hide as there seemed to be more action over there- and the rain that was about to hit looked as though it would be heavy and last for around 2 hours. So we didn't want to be stuck in a hide with nothing to look at.

A Red Kite was hunting in one of the fields, and a Dunnock singing was one of the few birds that actually showed itself.

A Jay flew past, and a Common Whitethroat flew up onto the fence.

We soon rounded the corner to the hide and sat ourselves inside. 

Immediately, there was much more to see here. Three Avocets were around, very large numbers of Canada Geese (mostly juvenile), Lapwings, Gadwalls, a Little Egret, two Mute Swans and a few Redshank.

In the distance, a few juvenile waders (Redshank??) were feeding on the mud, and another Whitethroat popped up onto a bush.

As I started scanning the distance through my scope, a very large bird appeared in frame. After two seconds of computing the image I was receiving, I quickly said to Dad, "Dad, there's an eagle." 

I watched this massive adult White-tailed Eagle through the scope for 15 seconds before getting Dad on it. It soon landed on a usual fence post in the distance. I've seen these birds quite a few times, and very close, but Dad had never seen one properly before, so I was very chuffed for him to be able to see the bird.

No matter how many times you see these birds, it is always just so incredible.

All of a sudden, the rain rolled in, quickly blanketing the landscape. 

But this didn't stop all the birds from coming out, as a Sedge Warbler came and showed extremely
well in front of the hide.

Some Mallard and Gadwall ducklings made a dash for any sort of cover, all while the eagle in the background just stood there, seemingly unfazed by the downpour.

A Tufted Duck appeared, and a few Skylarks were singing.

After a long 45 minutes, the rain finally cleared, with the eagle still on its post in the background. Some birds started moving around, including a Sedge Warbler, a few Goldfinches, and some Blue Tits on the wires directly in front of the hide.

Two Egyptian Geese flew past, and another Sedge Warbler came close to the hide.

A very cute Blue Tit showed well for a bit... there was plenty to look at for sure!

Sadly, the hills in the distance disappeared as another huge band of rain came in. By this point, there were about 5 other people in the hide. Within seconds of the rain hitting, all of the windows were closed as torrential rain came in. It was like rain I'd never seen before...

An hour later, with a very brief few minutes where the skies weren't offloading in between, the sky cleared, with the hills in the background visible again, the windows of the hide opened up, and a much clearer look again at the landscape- the eagle still hadn't budged....

By now, the eagle had been sitting in that spot for two and a half hours, with no sign of budging. We had been hoping it might fly off, but with that not seeming likely any time soon, Dad and I took a break in the weather to head over to the north brooks. 

We decided we would have a look in Nettley's hide for a while before heading back home, not wanting to be back too deep in the afternoon.

As soon as we were in the hide, Dad noticed a deer on one of the banks, and as I was photographing a flying Avocet, I briefly caught it in frame... although I didn't notice until about 5 seconds ago when editing this image!

A Lesser Black-backed Gull had caught something as it flew about, and a Grey Heron was also around.

Sadly, with time pressing, we had to leave, heading back along the woodland trail towards the visitor centre.

But not without event.

Hardly 50 meters up the path from Nettley's Hide, a series of noises could be heard from the bushes. It was a call, I sort of recognised. And all of a sudden, a sort of nondescript brown bird landed in a tree a few meters in front of us. I knew what it was immediately, but wasn't entirely certain just because of how unusual this was- a Nightingale singing out in the open, completely unfazed by us. Wowww!

I have photographed Nightingale before- but that was a thousand miles away on the southern coast of Spain. Never before in Britain. My first ever Nightingale had actually been at Pulborough Brooks last year, but that was only a very brief glimpse through seemingly thousands of twigs and tree branches.

This was something else. It just sat there singing. A few meters away. The lighting was absolutely horrific, to be fair, but that was no problem to the naked eye- this bird was absolutely stunning.

I managed a very brief video as well-

Soon, it flew off past the path into the thick bushes, having just been sat on the fencepost, hardly a stone's throw away. And then came the realisation that this was not the only one... another flew past, and one more was further down the slope from us, also singing. Truly remarkable- three Nightingales all in the same place, all showing with no effort needed to find them. What a memory. 

With this, Dad and I walked back to the visitor centre, feeling absolutely thrilled- and still a bit shocked- with the previous 10 minutes.

We took, as we always do at Pulborough, one last look over the incredible view, before heading to the car, and travelling home.

Well, what an incredible trip. A memory to last a lifetime. We had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and even now, writing this a full day later, the excitement and adrenaline of those Nightingales are still very real to me. It really is an incredible thing, birdwatching. Unlike anything else. Absolutely love it.

Good night, and thanks for reading:)