Ken, Malcom and I had agreed
to have a day’s birding in west Norfolk and when Malcolm and I set off from
home around 06:30 there was some light rain, but we expected it to be dry by
the time we reached Norfolk. It was
still damp when we picked Ken at Uppingham and there was some mist and drizzle
as we continued east, which began to clear slowly.
We had a Kestrel just after
passing through Flitcham and then a single Pink-footed Goose was observed
between Great Bircham and Docking. We
approached the coast via Choseley Barns and whilst checking the fields for Grey
Partridge, which we didn’t find, found a flock of Golden Plover. There must have been close to a 1000 bird in
the flock and with a Dotterel being reported with Golden Plover recently we
stopped and scoped the flock. We had
scanned through the flock once without success but as I started to go through
them again they took to flight and disappeared.
We continued checking the fields before reaching the A149 and found
twenty-six Red-legged Partridge in the last field with fourteen Curlew in the
field just to the south.
We walked across the small
footbridge to reach the footpath to Holme, seeing a Grey Plover, a Bar-tailed
Godwit and several Curlew and Redshank in the creek. Malcolm then pointed out a Stonechat that was
perched on a post just on the far side of the path. I then noticed a small party of birds in
flight and altered the others that I had the Twite. They flew towards us and landed in sueda on
the edge of the creek, so we walked along the path to get a little closer. There were at least a dozen birds but we
could only see three or four most of the time, but I did get a few shots of
them as they continued feeding. They
eventually flew and landed on the far side of the creek and we able to see that
there were fifteen birds before they flew again and disappeared. With the target bird in the bag we moved back
to Titchwell, where the plan was to spend the rest of the day.
Twite
Twite
It only took a few minutes to
get to Titchwell and after parking we went through the centre to reach the west
bank. The feeders were all empty so we
continued onto the west bank to walk to the beach seeing a Stonechat before we
reached Thornham Pool.
We stopped to scan the now
empty pool hoping to find a Water Pipit, but all we found was a Pied Wagtail
and circa seventy Linnet. There was a
distant female-type Marsh Harrier perched in a bush in the reedbed and when we
reached the freshwater marsh there was far more water than on recent
visits. There were three Avocets
roosting alongside both Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwit and I counted 115
Bar-tailed, which were mainly concentrated to the left of the flock. As I went through the flock I found several
Dunlin, a single Ruff and seven Turnstone and there were two Knot towards the
far side of the lagoon and a few Golden Plover on another exposed island. There was plenty of wildfowl scattered around
the marsh, that included Brent Geese, Wigeon; Gadwall; Teal; Mallard; Shoveler
and a single Pintail. As we walked
further along the path Malcolm found a distant Chinese Water Deer on Thornham
Marsh where there were also five Little Egrets.
On reaching Volunteer Marsh it
was clear that the tide was coming in as the lagoon was almost covered in water
with just a few Shelduck, three Curlew and several Redshank still feeding.
I didn’t spend any time
looking on the Tidal Marsh as I wanted to get to the beach before high
tide. On reaching the beach the water
was already lapping around the old building remains and there were three
Sanderling feeding at the edge of the water and we eventually had at least
ten. Further east along the beach there
were a few Oystercatchers and four Bar-tailed Godwits but nothing else.
Other birders had seen a range
of birds on the sea and we had soon picked up some Common Scoter that were
quite close. I then picked up two female
Red-breasted Merganser in flight before Malcolm joined Ken and me. He then went a stood-on top of the sand dunes
to get a better view whilst Ken and I remained on the beach. As we continued scanning we saw several
Guillemots, both in flight and on the sea when Malcolm called a Velvet
Scoter. We were able to get some rough
directions from him and I eventually found it and it was a striking male. There were five Red-breasted Mergansers
nearby, a male and four females and we eventually must have seen at least nine
birds. I got on a Red-throated Diver
flying east and Malcolm then announced that there were two Long-tailed Ducks just
off-shore. It was a few minutes before I
found them as they were always out of sight more than not due to the swell on
the sea. Malcom then thought he might
have a Kittiwake, but it turned out to be just a Black-headed Gull, but I then
picked up another gull that was dipping down to the water, obviously feeding. I did consider Little Gull, but it was
clearly not a first-year bird and as the underwing didn’t look particularly dark
and then considered Kittiwake and on seeing what I thought were dark tips to
the wings alerted the others. Another
birder then approached asking if we had seen it and suggesting it was a Little
Gull. The bird was still visible but as
we started to look again it dropped onto the sea and we didn’t see it again. Ken had also considered Little Gull as he
thought the underwing did look darkish but not as dark as in an adult. I then suspected the bird was probably a
second-year, which would explain the dark tips to the wings and I also thought
I had seen some black smudges around the head on one occasion. Shortly afterwards I picked up three
Kittiwakes heading west when the in dark black tips to the wings being obvious. Other birds seen were four Goldeneye, three
Gannets and several Cormorants and Great Crested Grebes.
Meadow Pipit on the beach
With the time now after
mid-day we decided to return to the car park for lunch, but it took a while as
we stopped initially to check out the waders roosting on the Tidal Marsh, where
we found nine Grey Plover, six Dunlin, ten Bar-tailed Godwits and four
Turnstones and there was another drake Pintail as well. We stopped again just before going over the
hump to Volunteer Marsh as Malcolm had found a Spotted Redshank on the way to
the beach and we found two roosting along with a Ringed Plover and Ken then
found a second Ringed Plover
The water level was beginning
to drop on Volunteer Marsh and we found two Dunlin quite close to the path and
a single Grey Plover our in the middle of the marsh.
First-winter Dunlin
First-winter Dunlin
First-winter Dunlin
When we arrived back at the
Freshwater Marsh there were clearly more birds and obviously a big party of
Golden Plover, which may well have been those we had seen earlier at
Choseley. As we looked through these
with still no sign of the Dotterel I counted forty-one Ruff, which had also returned. We eventually got back to the car, seeing two
Siskin near the centre, and six Fieldfare and a Redwing flew over as we were
having lunch.
I suggested that we went to
have a look on Patsy’s Pool but on reaching the pool there didn’t appear to be
a great deal, but we then found a couple of Snipe to the right of the
screen. As Ken looked at one of the
birds he indicated that there was a pipit close to it. I glanced through the bins and thought that
look interesting and whilst setting the tripod and scope up, Malcolm and Ken
announced it was a Water Pipit. It then
disappeared but soon came back into view and we all had decent views before it
disappeared again behind the vegetation with Ken picking up shortly afterwards
flying off to the east.
We made our way back to the
West Bank and went out to Parrinder Hide to view the Freshwater Marsh. The Bar-tailed Godwits had left, which made
it easy to count the Black-tailed Godwits of which there were eighty. As we stood looking over the marsh
twenty-four Knot flew in and landed just to our right but with nothing else new
being seen we made our way back along the path hoping to see a Hen Harrier come
into roost.
It wasn’t too long before the
number of Marsh Harriers began to build and at one point we had eleven in the
air together but sadly no Hen Harrier. I
did pick up a Barn Owl on the far side of the marsh and a Yellow-legged Gull on
the Freshwater Marsh and Malcolm picked up a Kingfisher as it flew by before we
finally called it a day and headed back to the car.
When we left Titchwell it was
getting quite dark and just after passing through Docking we flushed a Tawny
Owl off the road, which was a good end to the day. I had recorded ninety-one species that
included a year-tick, the Water Pipit.
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