Glorious East Anglia – daffodils galore…

Tags

avocet, black-tailed godwit, Brancaster Staithe, Fosdyke, little egret, Photography, ruff, spoonbill, Sutton Bridge, teal, turnstone

We’re off to Frampton Marsh today, the RSPB reserve near Boston in Lincolnshire. We’ve seen some wonderful birds in the past so we’re hoping to repeat the experience. All through this part of East Anglia, and particularly into Lincolnshire, we have seen fields and fields of unpicked daffodils.  We can only imagine they are being left to multiply the bulbs.  Anyway, it’s a grand sight to see and even on a dull day would lift your spirits. No worries about dull days today, however, as it is sunny and warm. At the visitor centre an eager internee told us excitedly that they had had a sudden influx of Yellow Wagtails and one Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail from Italy! There’s nothing like such a rarity to send the real twitchers into wild paroxysms but we do not include ourselves in their number. We just like to take good photos of handsome birds. We were looking forward to seeing them, however. Alas, we were to be disappointed – they had apparently pushed off to pastures new. However, it appeared that our friend, the Spoonbill (or maybe it was a different one) had arrived and Peter was able to take a few long shots – just for the record. This Little Egret looked magisterial… The 360 degree hide is always an excellent place to see many different birds on the scrape and today was no exception. Plenty of Avocets around – some are shown here…       …with some in rather compromising positions!     One of my favourites – a male Teal…   …and more views of the male Ruff, changing into his breeding paraphenalia – it really is that time of the year!   There were plenty of Black-tailed Godwits too… A wonderful experience at Frampton Marsh again but the cockles were calling us so we decided to get back to Brancaster Staithe in time to catch the seafood stall before it closed at 5pm! On the way we stopped to photograph this pretty Church of All Saints at Fosdyke, with its handsome chevron leaded spire gleaming in the sunshine. Sutton Bridge on the borders of Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire has a wonderful swing bridge which takes us over the River Nene.    Back at Brancaster Staithe, cockles were bought and eaten while boats sailed past…   …and Turnstones carried on with their endless search for food…   Even Jack Russells go boating in this part of the world…   Back at Bramley House the sun was setting on another lovely day.