Two of the four WHOOPER SWANS
The second reserve of the day is Freiston Shore, just over the river from Frampton. Unbelievably this reserve is even more remote than Frampton, with few signs of civilisation and no body else there on the entire reserve! The main part of the reserve is an area of managed retreat where they broke holes in the sea wall and allowed an area of unimportant farmland to flood nayturally with salt water to create an area of saltmarsh. The saltmarsh is the original habitat in the area before it was reclaimed to create farmland, so allowing the sea wall to breach allowed the area to return to something more natural.
Looking on the map the RSPB give for the reserve it actually looks fairly small in scale. Boy was I in for a shock. On reaching the managed retreat I was surprised to see how vast it was. It extended for several miles into the distance, covering a large area. However there weren't many birds about as it was mainly saltmarsh, any areas of mudflats were far in the distant, which is where the birds would be feeding. The only bird seen was a female MARSH HARRIER lazily quartering the area.
From the car park, before I got to the managed retreat, the path skirted the lagoon, looked over by a hide. An area of shallow water and shingle islands it was fairly quiet, mainly WIGEON and BRENT GEESE, but also with four WHOOPER SWANS, a family party that included one juvenile. Also present were five LITTLE GREBES which are nice little birds to see.
The lagoon seen from the sea wall
On the other side of the reserve to the managed retreat is a large area of wet grassland, also created from farmland. Unfortunately due to the time of year it was dried out so there wasn't any water to attract ducks and waders, but I guess in winter the place would be heaving with birds numbering in their thousands. I skirted this habitat and returned back to the car park, with just the odd REED BUNTING and MIPPIT for company.
I spent a couple of hours here in total, and although I didn't see much bird wise, compared to Frampton, this was a visit just to experience the place, the wide open skies, horizons that stretched on to infinity, the peaceful solitude, all the qualities that make up great birding locations. Once again hats off to the RSPB for creating such a stunning landscape, to have such far reaching vision to create a reserve on this scale. They do such a good job, its just that there are so few people to witness it.
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