Rod's Birding: A day in west Norfolk

Dave was the drive today and Roger and I drive to his house and we picked Ken up in Uppingham before heading off to Titchwell.

We arrived at about 08:45 and in plenty of time for the weekly moth trapping event at the reserve. However the weather had not been great overnight and someone had tampered with one of the traps making it inoperable. So there was only one trap to empty that contained just thirteen moths covering twelve species, which was obviously a disappointment.

The following were in the trap: Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix [1]; Small Fan-footed Wave [1]; Single-dotted Wave [1]; Riband Wave [2]; Privet Hawkmoth [1]; Popular Hawkmoth [1]; Yellow-tail [1]; Common Footman [1]; Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing [1]; Smoky Wainscot [1]; Dark Arches [1] and Common Rustic sp. [1].

We did find to other micros during the day; an Anacampsis populella and a Pammene aurita.

0853 Anacampsis populella

Pammene aurita

Single Dotted Wave

We set off to walking down the footpath to the sea and I found a female Red-crested Pochard on the first lagoon to the east but there was little else of note until we reached the freshwater marsh were the water had dropped since he last time we were here and was more suitable for waders. Dave then picked up an adult Curlew Sandpiper feeding on the edge of one of the islands but there were no other small waders present. There were plenty of Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits but it was difficult seeing some of the lagoon so we moved onto to the hides. As we scanned the waders I found three Spotted Redshanks amongst the godwits and Ruff and there were six Spoonbills roosting on an island. Roger then noticed a seventh bird feeding on the fresh marsh and an eighth flew in and joined the six roosting birds, which were joined shortly afterwards by the feeding bird. As we had walked to the hide I had seen a juvenile Wheatear but the other missed it but it was seen again just before we entered the hide overlooking the brackish marsh. There were plenty of Redshanks on the brackish marsh and Dave picked up a superb summer plumage Grey Plover, which was to be our only sighting of the day.

We continued walking to the sea and found a first-summer Little Gull on the saline marsh where there was also Ringed Plover.

There were plenty of waders on the shore, including Oystercatcher; Sanderling; Bar-tailed Godwit; Curlew; Redshank and Turnstone and Dave found a single Whimbrel. The sea was relatively quiet, three Gannets, a Little Tern and two Sandwich Terns being the highlights.

We returned to the car park for lunch and decided to go to fen hide afterwards but it was very quiet and produced nothing of note except for a flock of about fifty distant Golden Plovers. We therefore went to island hide where we had some close views of Ruff and Black-tailed Godwits and found Little Ringed Plover. Time was now pressing and we finally called it a day and headed off home calling at Choseley Barns without any success. We had not gone too far when the first message of the day arrived indicating that there was an Alpine Swift at Sheringham but after a brief discussion and as the details were bit sketchy decided to continue going home.