With so much being seen in and around the Titchwell reserve
we opted to spend the morning thoroughly exploring and by just before 9am we
were heading out of the car park and onto the trail. Trevor had popped out of
the centre and informed me that an Osprey had been sat out on Thornham on a
post eating a fish but had already moved on.
We popped out of the trees having had great views of a
Treecreeper and I put my bins up and there was an Osprey way out over
Thornham. We followed it inland towards
the houses and lost it over the trees just as LGRE appeared but a glance up
gave us a second bird – a juvenile literally above our heads and given the
distance clearly not the first individual.
This one was superb and gleamed white in the early sunshine.
Frustratingly, none of the images from any of us were sharp due to early heat
haze! It headed inland over the visitors
centre and we looked back towards the mouth of Thornham Channel where two Ospreys
were hunting alongside each other practically over the sea! This was getting silly.
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| Osprey |
These two were on view almost continually for the rest of
our walk down and one caught and ate a fish while both were chased by Red Kites
and Marsh Harriers. With Common Buzzards
and Kestrels it was a bit of a raptorfest.
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| A very pallid male Marsh Harrier |
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| Red Kite, Marsh Harrier and Osprey on lower post |
It was set to be a mammoth tide and Thornham Marsh was
rapidly disappearing under water pushing up Redshank, Greenshank, Lapwings,
Curlews and flocks of Starlings and both Little and Great Egrets were seen.
On the first lagoon and drift of white became a snaky line
of sleeping Spoonbills and we counted 53 which is way more than I have ever
seen together in the UK and the exact same number that were seen leaving the
pits at Snettisham earlier in the morning.
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| Spoonbills |
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| Spoonbills |
I was determined to get us to the sea as soon as we could
but it was difficult to walk past the waders and such like on the way down
although the two juvenile Red-necked Phalaropes had now found each other and
were weaving like crazy bobbing dodgems in and out of the Greylags Geese and
Black-tailed Godwits!
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| Red-necked Phalaropes and fiends |
The Brackish Lagoon was completely full with just the top of
the tallest reeds visible – the first time I have ever seen it like this and
exactly what it was constructed for.
Some Turnstones and Oystercatchers were on the last lagoon but there
were no Grey Plovers and such like.
Unsurprisingly down at the beach there was actually little left and the ‘fort’
was completely submerged. We spent quite
some time scanning the sea and got great views of silvery black juvenile
Gannets, squeaky Sandwich Terns, single Guillemot and Razorbill which were both
preening quite close in, seven Great Crested Grebes, a summer plumaged
Red-throated Diver, eight Scoter and a smattering of waders whizzing by
including the first Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling and Ringed Plover of
the trip.
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Oystercatchers |
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| Oystercatchers - very useful to see given the 'longipes' bird on Lesvos last week |
Mark Wilson joined us for a
catch up, the once Rainham regular having escaped up here ten years ago – he was
off to collect more bags of oil polluted plastic nurdles from the foreshore
that have emerged following the collision of the two ships off Yorkshire back
in March.
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| Nurdles |
Way out to the east the Oystercatchers and Gulls were all up
over Scolt Head and there above them was an Osprey and we tracked it back along
the beach towards us where this adult bird hovered and plunged in close
offshore but came up without lunch. Was
this a new bird or a Thornham one that had got behind us. Personally I think it was a fifth bird but
one must not be too greedy! Two Grey Seals bobbed offshore and both Migrant Hawker and Red Admiral came in off.
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| Osprey #5? |
Lunch beckoned and we started to walk back passing several Wall
Browns on the way. Back at the
Spoonbills they were getting more active and suddenly the whole flock was up
and scattering in all directions. I have
never been in the position of not knowing which flock of Spoonbills to look at. It was my moment of the day. |
| Spoonbills |
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| Spoonbills |
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| Spoonbills |
We could not find the Phalaropes this time but the Pectoral
Sandpiper was slowly poking around an island and two Golden Plover were found with
slightly grumpy expressions. The walk
was slightly lengthened by me keep bumping into people that I knew but
eventually we reconvened in the now completely full car park for a picnic under
the apple trees. A Grey Wagtail was
added to the trip list as it flew over calling.
Heading east from here took us past Holkham were two herds
of cows clearly had Cattle Egrets with them but as ever we could not pull over
and so we pushed on to North Point Pools which I was very pleased to see still
had plenty of water on the eastern side.
Huge flock of Greylags dozed warily in the stubble with a
few watchful Egyptian Geese and out on the flood there were many eclipse
dabbling ducks including Pintail and Wigeon and three Spoonbills and two Little
Egrets were tucked in the furthest corner.
There were a few gulls to search through and I was pleased to find a 1cy
Caspian Gull paddling around.
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| Greylags |
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| Greylags |
Despite being some muddy margins there were no small waders
at all with just some Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets. A falcon overhead became a juvenile Hobby
that put on a splendid show for ten minutes; zipping to and fro and even going
for Linnets in a distant hedge line. Meanwhile the more casual Kestrel continued
to hover hunt and was not phased by her flamboyant cousin. There were Marsh Harriers, Buzzards and Kites
circulating but the birds on the pools seemed very unfussed.
A walk down to the seawall was quiet with a couple of quiet ‘tackers’
in the brambles that were burgeoning with berries and the heavily scented Ivy had
a plethora of insects with the odd Red Admiral, many Wasps, a few Hoverflies
and Buff-tailed Bumblebees and a very good number of stripy little Ivy
Bees. There were Wall Browns too with 21
counted although none visited the Ivy.
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| Wall Brown |
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| Milk Thistle I believe |
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| Ivy Bee - Colletes hedera |
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| Ivy Bee - Colletes hedera |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Buff-tailed Bumblebee on Perennial Sow Thistle - I even got the crew to engage in some flower fondling - the flowers of the above being the softest blooms of any plant I know! |
Down on the saltmarsh we counted 15 more Spoonbills and a
few more Little Egrets and watched a deluge of rain over Wells. We caught the side end of it briefly and
given the water on the roads when we headed back through town we had been very
fortunate not to get caught out in the open.
Back at the van there were now Brown Hares in the fields and
we counted four where none had been seen on the way down. These fields have always been very good for
them.
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| Brown Hare |
We retraced our route back to Titchwell stopping in the Burnham
Overy Dunes layby to have a scan and search for Grey Partridges but alas there
were none and we only found a few plump Wood Pigeons, Jackdaws and a several
spangled clod-like Golden Plovers that were successfully trying to blend in.
Back at Briarfields some of us chose to walk back down to
the eastern trail for a quick look at the waders. Two Muntjac were on the path and once down at
the end of the track we were able to watch the same evening wader selection as
yesterday but in less blustery conditions and amongst the Dunlin we found two
Curlew Sandpipers, four Little Stints and seven Little Ringed Plovers. There were 18 Golden Plover roosting amongst
the Lapwings. A Painted Lady was added to the Butterfly list.
It was a pleasant pre-dinner walk to finish things up. After a very convivial dining experience, everyone
retired leaving me to pop over and have a catch up with my good friends Louis
and Gosia who I now see so infrequently.
Both were in fine form.
I must finish this soon as we are off to Snettisham for the
high tide roost tomorrow which thankfully is not till about 10.30! Let’s hope the weather holds.
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