Titchwell 6/4/2017

After a fairly underwhelming morning at Holme Dunes, the pressure was on to get a decent sighting. So I went to Titchwell, a big beast of a reserve, to see if I could catch something.

 

 

As usual as I find with Titchwell it is the coast and the sea that provides the main interest, especially to someone coming from Suffolk where the sea doesn't really hold large numbers of birds.
It had turned into a beautiful day, bright and sunny with no wind, allowing me to strip down to a t shirt.
Titchwell only has one route, a mile long journey down to the beach. As the journey progresses it passes through a range of habitats, from woodland, throuch reedbed, through fresh marsh, to esturine marsh and finally on to the beach and to the sea. Having walked this short route many times it can get a bit monotonous.
First sighting of  the day was a small party of BEARDED TIT, just as the reedbed ended.

Male BEARDED TIT has the distinctive moustache

 

On the Fresh Marsh the water levels were very high, with only two islands visible there. There were over 100 AVOCET present, with a few other waders. A pair of MEDITERRANEAN GULLS, were 
amongst their slightly less distinctive cousins the BLACK-HEADED GULL, which were nesting in large numbers.

TEAL were still common on the pools. They often approached closely to the hides, so were the easiest bird to photo

 



The esturine pools were failry quiet, just the usual waders in small numbers. Tidal Marsh held a pair of RED-CRESTED POCHARD, with another four on Patsy's Reedbed.

 

Pair of RED CRESTED POCHARD

 



Finally I came to the sea. On the beach there weren't any waders about, as it was high tide and too disturbed, but the sea was productive. Around 40 black and white LONG-TAILED DUCK were amongst the more numerous COMMON SCOTER, being quite difficult to count on the undulating water. Also with them was an EIDER. Another COMMON SCOTER flock, just out of range of my telescope, shimmering in the heat haze, created a massive black ellipse on the sea. A few SANDWICH TERNS were flying about and there were small numbers of GREAT CRESTED GREBE dotted aound on the water.
So it was the sea that saved it, but the scrapes and pools were as poor as the other two previous sites. I'd advise anyone looking to see the spectacle of a scrape in the spring time should head over to Minsmere, the first and the best example of that habitat.