Nov 9th Titchwell

Little Bittern watching

It has been some time since I was last at Titchwell, hasn't it? With the reserve being a bit of a migrant magnet of late, I've been meaning to pay a visit and see what I could find. When Mum and I arrived to Titchwell this morning, we were greeted with big news that a little bittern had been sighted by Patsy's Reedbed along the East Trail earlier. So, I guess you can figure out where we went first? Unfortunately, when we got to the blind that overlooked the pool and the reed bed the little bittern was hiding in was, as expected, packed with twitchers. So many in fact, that we couldn't see past them and the narrow windows of this wooden blind. Not that the bird was there in the first place. No one had seen it since just after 9am, an hour before we showed up.

Giving up on the little bittern, we made the short walk to the end of the East Trail, seeing a flock of passing curlews, 3 flying snipe, marsh harriers, skeins of pink-footed geese, gadwall, shelducks and shovelers. Backtracking back towards the main path, we continued on to the Island Hide. Here, we looked out over the freshwater pool and saw that the centre was carpeted in a flock of hundreds of golden plovers. There were also ruffs, avocets, dunlin, brent geese, lapwings, teal and many gulls.

Sanderling

Mum decided that she didn't want to walk any further beyond the Parrinder hides, so I ended up going to the beach on my own. I wanted to try and photograph seabirds, though, with my camera, it was a bit of a stretch. With my track record, photographing distant birds flying over or on the everchanging sea is pretty difficult. I have recently decided to make a personal book involving the collection of my many photos throughout the years where I can log all the species I've ever photographed in the UK (and Europe). Think sticker album, but with my own photos. I want to fill in as many of the blank spaces with at least one passable photo of each species. Seabirds is one section in my book that will prove to be the worst to fill. Annoyingly, there weren't a lot about to spot today, just a few red-breasted mergansers that I quickly lost. At least there were many waders by the shore, such as sanderlings, oystercatchers, turnstones, godwits and curlews, but I have plenty of photos to choose from already of those.

Bank Vole

After lunch, I made a return to the East Trail to have another go at the little bittern. The crowds have thinned since this morning and I managed to get a seat by the wooden blind. I sat with the remainder of the twitchers, that hadn't quite given up yet, until the cold air started to get to me. The bird still hadn't appeared since I was last here and it never decided to show itself while I was sitting patiently either. I had to admit defeat. However, there was one highlight as I was making my return to the car for home. As I turned the corner from Fen Hide, I came across a woman pointing a small camera over the railing of the boardwalk. I peered down to where she was looking, and there, sitting atop of a bramble branch munching at something, was a bank vole! It was so small, yet so cute. The best way to end a slightly disappointing day of migrant watching at Titchwell. No rarity today, but the vole certainly cheered me up.