RSPB Freiston Shore - A (very) chilly walk looking for birds

I've been on holiday this past week, and we've not really done a great deal, which is slightly annoying as I planned to take this week off to make the most of my partner being at home as she is heading back to Cumbria Uni next week.

After faffing around with boring stuff, we finally managed to find a spare day where we could go out for a walk. Options for wildlife watching is limited in Winter, and the best place to go is usually to find large areas of water, as at least here there will be various birds and ducks that over-winter here.

Last month we visited RSPB Langford Lowfields which is an area of wetland (open water patches of water and reed beds etc). Other places to find water is the coast (obviously lol) and for this trip we headed out to RSPB Freiston Shore.

It is a nature reserve located on the east of England in an area commonly revered to as 'The Wash'. It is the location of various esturies (mouths of rivers) and the surrounding mudflats are a great source of food for various birds that stay for the Winter

RSPB Freiston Shore - info page

There is a Reserve just down the road called Frampton Marsh which we have been to a number of times, but this was the first trip we had made to Freiston Shore. To be honest we expected a similar landscape and experience, but it was still interesting to see if there was anything different here.

The UK is currently experiencing a cold snap, and the weather for today was -1C, with a windchill of -5C. As we were right on the coast we got the full force of that windchill!

God damn it was cold today!

We wrapped up warm (plenty of layers, and hats and gloves) and with our cameras ready we set out to see what we could find

So, first observation. The reserve is much smaller than the Frampton Marsh one, with a small Hide nearby, and then a 4.8km trek to the other side of the reserve to find the other hide on the Wetland Trail.

Of we went to find the first hide...

In between the hedgerow we could see a glimpse of the ducks beyond on a small patch of water... I think these are Wigeon on the water?

A closer look is needed!

We found the first hide:

And set up inside with our cameras at the ready

The patch of water was bigger than I expected, in the distance I could see various species of duck on the water... and some resting or feeding on the far bank, but after waiting a short while we noticed a pair of birds swimming alongside the lake closest to us...

They were indeed Wigeon Anas penelope Here we can see the brightly coloured male with the drab brown female behind him

I often think of ducks as being slightly boring (I know I need to work on that!), but the males look quite distinctive with their russet-orange plumage.

They look quite smart in flight too...

I didn't even realize that they had that bright green bar on the wings!

There were Wigeon everywhere. Most were in the distance, and not even my telephoto zoom lens was able to get a decent picture.

The lens is a Sigma 150-600mm C, if you're interested. It's a fantastic piece of kit, and available in different mounts (for Canon, Nikon or Sony)

After sitting in the hide for 30 mins or so, we started to get cold, so it was time to get moving so we could try and find the other hide. As we continued down the path, we noticed there were more ducks on our side of bank, so I was able to get some better pictures

Love this one, the male in the middle of the shot appears to be enjoying himself immensely!

At the end of the path we climbed up on to a big ridge.

On the right hand side we can see the brown area which is the mudflats where birds like to feed, and if you keep heading further to the right you will end up in the sea.

On the left hand side is the salt marsh where the water levels are managed to provide a different type of area for feeding birds.

At the end of this long LONG path is the mouth of the River Witham, as it reaches the sea. This is where the 2nd bird hide is located, you can see this square building in the hazy distance shot below

There was a lot of walking needed, and as we were on the ridge we were fully exposed to the bitingly cold wind blowing in from the sea.

just thinking about it now makes me shiver!

While trudging along and trying to keep warm we still kept our eyes peeled, there was plenty to see

Such as this distant fishing boat working just off the coast next to the mudflats. Not sure what they were fishing for, but shellfish was most likely the target.

Or there was a Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) circling high up

There were also smaller songbirds - a male Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Along with the female Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) atop the neighboring bush

There was even an unexpected Magpie loitering suspiciously in the rough ground!

After nearly an hour of walking, we finally reached the 2nd hide. Its in a great location right on the edge where the river meets the sea

Unfortunately there didn't appear to be much to see here. Maybe the wrong time of year, maybe the wrong time of day. May be the freezing weather was against us, or maybe we were just really unlucky.

There is a lot of luck involved in Wildlife Photography, just to be in the right place at the right time (let alone getting all the settings right)

Other than a few ducks in the water...

...and some Canada Geese flying overhead, there wasn't much to see.

We paused to have lunch (a Ham sandwich if you really wanted to know), but the longer we sat down the colder we got.

After lunch, we turned round and started heading back.

On one of the nearby fields, we spotted a large group of Geese feeding on the grass

Petty sure these are Brent Geese (Branta bernicla)

Retuning back along the ridge, we gazed over the wetland scene in front off us

wait, is that a path that goes down there?

We took the steps down in the hope that we could get out of the wind

And it was a good call in the end. There was a little more shelter down here, and what wind that still blew was coming from behind us...

Here we have an Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)

And furthur along the path we spotted a couple of larger wading birds

This is a nice find. It is either a Black-tailed Godwit, or a Bar-tailed Godwit. Note entirely sure which species it is, but I know I have never seen either of these before...

Really elegant looking birds, that long bill is used to probe deep into the soil for various invertebrates crawling under the surface

and it looks like he caught something!

Or perhaps he is sniggering at me as I don't know his name 😂

Luckily when we walked a little further down the path, I spotted a group of similar birds in the distance. They were too far away to get a decent shot... but, when they all flew into the air I noticed they all featured a white stripe on their wings.

Eureka!

I now know they are Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa)

Its always nice to put a name to a face (or bird in this case!)

It was quite a nice way to finish the day. After watching the Black-tailed Godwits, we then headed back to car and we were finally able to get warmed up again.

So... final thoughts on RSPB Frieston Shore?

Its a nice little reserve. I suspect next time we are in the area we would probably go to the reserve next door at Frampton Marsh. But I wouldn't mind returning here at some point. The 2nd hide was slightly disapointing, but there was still plenty to look at.

And on that note, I'll leave with the final picture featuring a very proud looking Wigeon!