March 12th Titchwell and Thornham Harbour

Brent Geese

The North Norfolk coastline has been buzzing with excitement this week as something incredibly unusual and unexpected has turned up. A snowy owl has been travelling between Cley and Snettisham and it has been reported at a different location each day. Today, during a rare outing with my dad, we went to visit Titchwell, where it was spent hours sitting on the beach on Saturday. As the owl could be anywhere and with no new sighting news coming through of it's whereabouts, we weren't likely or expecting to see it. Instead, I was just hoping to see something, anything that's special enough to celebrate my birthday with. I would still have loved to had seen that owl though!

Avocet with Oystercatchers

Other than the snowy owl, I've also heard that a woodcock had been regularly spotted roosting by the reserve's car park. Not today! And then there's the group of scaup that I also was hoping to see. Annoyingly, they too were absent! So already, I was feeling disappointed. No exciting birthday birds for me today it seems. But that's just another day of birdwatching for you. It rarely goes the way you want it to. However, though it was lightly raining now and then, it was still nice to see what was about with my dad even if the target species were a no show. At least the pools were more active with bird life this time compared to my previous visit with Mum last month. Hundreds of brent geese dominated the freshwater pool, despite gradually taking off and flying over us to the salt marsh on the opposite side of the main path. There were also plenty of waders, such as avocets, curlews, black-tailed godwits, dunlin and redshanks. Other highlights seen while making our way to the beach includes: Mediterranean gulls, shelducks, teal, wigeon, marsh harriers, linnets and a brief glimpse of a bearded tit.


Avocet

Black-tailed Godwit



Greylag

Teal

Redshank

Dunlin with Redshank

Curlew

Mediterranean Gull

Linnet

Bar-tailed Godwit

The tide was in this time around when we finally got to the beach. Bar-tailed godwits and oystercatchers probed the soft sand along the tideline, while small, dainty sanderlings raced away between every incoming wave like little clockwork toys. Sitting on the sea just offshore was a common scoter. Though it was clearly visible, it was still difficult for me to photograph with my camera as it was constantly hidden from view by the motion of the sea.

Sanderling

Titchwell Beach

The strandline along the beach was rather interesting today as it was full of echinoderms and dead fish as well as various shells and crab carapaces. Echinoderms is the family in which starfish and sea urchins belong and the beach seemed to have a collection of various species on display this afternoon. If you were following this blog last year, starfish were one of my targets for my invertebrate challenge and I failed to find a single one for some strange reason. It seems that the beach at Titchwell was full of them this year. And it wasn't just common starfish either, as their cousins, the common sun-star were dotted all along the beach, too, big and small! These are basically starfish with extra arms radiating around the centre. It was quite a treasure trove out there!

Common Starfish



Common Sun-star

Green Sea Urchin

Dead Plaice?

A purple Shore Crab carapace

Brambling

Before leaving Titchwell, I watched the feeders for a bit in the hope that the bramblings would turn up. Thankfully, they didn't disappoint me like the woodcocks, snowy owls and scaups and at least two appeared a few minutes after I sat down on a bench overlooking the feeders.

Robin

Grey Squirrel



Twite

We made one short stop to Thornham Harbour before heading home. Could I out trump the brambling with a twite or two? Well, we weren't the only ones seeking for them as small gathering of twitchers joined in with the search. Suddenly, I could hear a lot of promising twittering coming from a tree, a tree that is apparently a favourable one amongst the flock of 20 twite that have spent the majority of the winter here. And there they were! At least, I was confidant enough to say so. Everyone else had very little experience with this species before and were undecided if I was right or not. But fortunately, some more experienced and local birdwatchers arrived to side with me. Now this was the exciting birthday bird highlight that I was after!

Skylark