Titchwell - 19/7/2018

 

 

 Moulting male RUFF

 

For today's birdwatching trip we crossed over the border into deepest darkest Norfolk, all the way to the north coast and to Titchwell. It all went safely and we managed to get out and back to Suffolk unscathed. In fact we had an amazing day, Titchwell was absolutely heaving with birds, something I have never experienced before in any of my previous visits here.

It is a long, long journey up to the northern coast from where I live, just under two hours driving, so we ended up arriving around half eleven.

 

A LESSER YELLOWLEGS had been kicking its heels around the reserve for the last couple of days and after enquiring at the visitor's centre confirmed it was still at the reserve.
The layout at Titchwell is really simple. There is only one path that leads straight up to the beach. It passes a variety of habitats that turn from woodland to beach, including reedbeds, freshwater marsh, brackish marsh and intertidal mudflats.

Parrinder Hide overlooking Freshwater Marsh

The reedbeds were fairly quiet, with a pair of RED CRESTED POCHARDS on one of the pools, turning into eclipse plumage. The eclipse is a period in late summer when the male ducks shed all their colourful feathers, to grow new ones for winter and the breeding season. As a result all ducks in this period look like the females, mainly brown and dowdy, making it harder to tell apart closely related species.

A different moulting male RUFF

 



After the reedbeds we came across Freshwater Marsh, and boy were we in for a surprise. Now I mainly visit Titchwell later in the year when things quieten down. However today there must have been some freak conditions to create this spectacle. There were just thousands of birds. Mainly AVOCETS, GODWITS, GULLS, GEESE and DUCKS, a period when the breeding season had coincided with Autumn migration is the only way to describe what we saw. The variety was amazing too. In the first patch of mud were just loads of RUFF. In all there must have been at least thirty birds on the Freshwater Marsh, numbers I haven't seen for a long time. At the moment it was just males, moulting out of their summer plumage, non breeding birds, the females and juveniles would come later. A juvenile BEARDED TIT was seen feeding on a patch of mud a habit I haven't seen before in this species, and its also good to see juveniles.

 Two SNIPE

 

We walked along the path where we met some volunteers who put us onto three CURLEW SANDPIPER, still in brick red breeding plumage, amongst a flock of DUNLIN. They also put us onto the LESSER YEELLOWLEGS, a lifer for me, which was a bird we saw before, but had dismissed as  a REDSHANK. As I have mentioned the bird resembled the previously mentioned species, with yellow legs and a dark spotty back. Not the most spectacular of birds but nice in its own way. There was a LITTLE TERN roosting on one of the islands. Like Minsmere the reserve held few young AVOCET with only five counted.
At the top end of Freshwater Marsh is Parrinder Hide, very stylish for a hide, which looks over two sides - south to Freshwater Marsh and north to Volunteer Marsh. On Freshwater Marsh we got better looks at the CURLEW SAND, and there were three SNIPE immediately in front.
On the other side Volunteer Marsh was more tidal and held only a few REDSHANK, making quite a difference between the two habitats.

 

LESSER YELLOWLEGS

 



 Moving on we came to the third marsh - Tidal Marsh, which as you may guess is a tidal area. On an island in the water was a flock of SPOONBILLS resting, slightly bigger than the accompanying LITTLE EGRETS, and would occaisionally preen themselves with their spoon shaped bills.
Eventually the path made its way to the beach and the North Sea. The beach is unspoilt and goes on for miles and miles. Scattered along the water's edge were small flocks of summer plumaged SANDERLING, quite different to their white winter plumage. On the sea were lots of different varieties of TERN, a small flock of GANNETS was observed.
On the way back a different flock of six SPOONBILL flew over, the other's were still present in the same place as before. The LESSER YELLOWLEGS was more accessible this time and I was able to take some photos.

Weeting Heath

On the way back from Titchwell we decided to stop off at Weeting Heath. This reserve is famous for its STONE CURLEWS, where hides look over the heaths at the birds, making it the most accessible reserve for this species.

 

The reserve has a pine belt which you can walk to the hides from the visitor's centre. Here we found a couple of SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS birds that are hard to find, let alone as breeding birds.

The Heath is mainly overgrown grassland, burnt brown by the sun. We managed to see two STONE CURLEWS walking in and out of clumps of grass, distinguished by their yellow bill and large eyes.

Further on we went on a walk through an area of pine woodlands north of the reserve. In a large TIT flock we saw both a TREECREEPER and a NUTCHATCH. However the paths were poorly marked and we managed to get lost a couple of times before completing the route.

On the way back we saw a third STONE CURLEW, in a different area to the other two.

 

Well there you go, it was a completely unexpected July day's birdwatching. Little did I expect to see so many birds in a time of year I dismiss as an "inbetween" period. Migrating WADERS were in great supply, with the added bonus that the birds were mainly in summer plumage, looking quite stunning. As the heat intensifies more and more pools will dry up, leaving places like Titchwell the only place to find fresh water. This will concentrate more and more birds into smaller areas making August an interesting time. Its heating up to be a good WADER passage.