Feb 24th Titchwell

Brambling

It has been an eventful visit to Titchwell today. It was warm and sunny and my parents decided that it was a waste not to make the most of it. So, here I am with my mum and dad enjoying the glorious weather on the North Norfolk coast looking for birds in the process. And we didn't have to go far from the visitor centre until I had my first highlight of the day. Brambling were joining the goldfinches, chaffinches and other common garden birds on the bird feeders. A great start.

Muntjac Deer

We had just joined the main path to begin our walk to the main reserve when a muntjac deer crossed in front of us emerging from one ditch to our right and disappearing to the other ditch to our left. It wasn't in much of a hurry to disappear despite our presence, but it was largely ignored by an adjacent large crowd staring a little further up at the ditch it came out from. Why? Because there was a water rail showing extremely well probing for food in the mud.

Water Rail

Barn Owl

The walk to Island Hide continued to throw more surprises at us. It took many minutes to get to this hide because we had to keep stopping every few yards for one exciting bird after another. Marsh harriers were displaying above us and a small flock of bearded tits was drawing quite a large crowd of people watching them feed on the reed heads along the edge of the freshwater marsh, but for me, seeing a barn owl hunting in broad daylight over the fields and salt marshes on the left side of the main path was without doubt pretty special. It made a couple of flights before plummeting behind a bush and out of sight each time. I managed to get one very distant shot of it. Not the greatest photos, but it will do.

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit watching

Reed Bunting

Linnet

The three main pools provided a reasonable selection of waders and wildfowl. This included; Mediterranean gulls, avocets, black-tailed godwits, grey plover, oystercatchers, redshanks, shelducks, greylags, a turnstone, curlews, gadwall, teal and brent geese.

Greylag

Shelduck

Oystercatcher

Mediterranean Gull

Black-headed Gull

Grey Plover

Curlew

Black-tailed Godwit

Turnstone

Avocet

Avocets and Godwits

The beach

When I finally got to the beach, the tide was out, but wasn't exposing the seaweed which normally attracts all the waders close enough for me to photograph. Without this exposure, the waders were few and far between along the tideline. The real action was far out at sea, where you really needed a scope to see them properly. I had to ask nicely to a friendly sea watcher to get a look at a very handsome long-tailed duck that kept diving out of view whenever I peered through their scope. It was amongst the distant bodies of goldeneyes and red-breasted mergansers. I also saw a red-throated diver and some cormorants before making the walk back to the visitor centre for lunch. There was still time for one more short walk to the Fen Hide and the blind viewing the pool on the right side of the reserve, seeing tufted ducks and a little grebe, before heading home.

Red-throated Diver

Goldeneye

Tufted Duck

Scarlet Elfcap