Titchwell
We started out the day at Titchwell arriving there at 9am – an hour before they opened. We headed straight down to the first hide on the path that leads to the Parrinder hide. On our way down we could hear Sedge and Reed Warblers, Chiffchaff, Cetti’s Warblers and assorted other woodland birds. The weather was pretty cold, overcast and windy, so not much chance of Bearded Tits. Further down we saw Marsh Harrier and in the hide we got Avocet, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Gadwall and Grey Heron. Oystercatcher and Pochard added to the tally. We also got three Brent Geese.
Up at the Parrinder hide, as I approached, I got a Greenshank and from the on the fresh water lagoon we got better views of a number of Ringed Plovers and a single Little Ringed Plover, the latter a year tick. There were also Turnstones, Dunlin and a single ruff.
On the way back down to the woods we saw a small group of Swifts and more Marsh Harrier. On the Fen Hide trail we heard more woodland birds but not much from the hide itself. Further along at the lagoon we got a few Pochards but not the Red-crested Pochard we hoped for and had seen there in previous years. Almost at the end of the track we got a couple of Red-legged Partridge and this gave us an overall count of 54 species. Not too bad but we booked a guided walk for Monday that tries to spot 70 species in three hours or so.
Year Ticks Little Ringed Plover
Holme Dunes NWT
We decided to have a bite to eat and Holme Dunes NWT reserve just down the road. We were going to spend a bit of the afternoon there and an additional attraction was the presence, seen from the car park by numerous people, of a Red-breasted Flycatcher. This would be a life tick for me so we were very keen, even having a go before our cup of tea.
There were around ten people in the car park and some of them had been there a while and had got fairly good views of the bird which sometimes even sat on a fence post. It wasn’t keen to show itself to us however so we went for a spot of lunch before returning. This time we were in better luck as it eventually peeked out of the foliage now and then giving me three good, but very short, views of it before it eventually obliged and flew onto an outside branch of a nearby tree, satisfying all present. An additional bonus was hearing (but not seeing – yet) a Turtle Dove.
Our next plan was to go down to the three hides near the car park and here we got a few birds including a Whimbrel and Avocet, Pochard, Redshank, Shelduck, Shoveler etc. but the real treat was in the meadow behind the hides that the path runs round and in here we got in the space of ten minutes or so, Redstart, Wheatear and Whinchat, all year ticks and the last of these is a bird that I have not seen for a few years now.
It is hard to complain about a haul like that in the space of a few hours – 1 Life Tick and 4 Year Ticks. I think we will be back for more tomorrow.
Life Tick Red-breasted Flycatcher
Year Ticks Whinchat, Redstart, Wheatear, Turtle Dove
Hunstanton Cliffs
We left Holme Dunes to get some shopping in Hunstanton where we stopped briefly at the cliffs to get Fulmar.
To summarise the day we got 69 species during the day 1 of which was a life tick and five of which were year ticks. This takes our holiday total to 107 and our year list to 148 !
Bird Sightings : Titchwell RSPB
| Greylag Goose | 30 |
| Brent Goose | 3 |
| Canada Goose | 6 |
| Mute Swan | 4 |
| Common Shelduck | 20 |
| Gadwall | 8 |
| Mallard | 12 |
| Northern Shoveler | 6 |
| Common Teal | 10 |
| Common Pochard | 3 |
| Tufted Duck | 4 |
| Red-legged Partridge | 2 |
| Common Pheasant | 4 |
| Little Grebe | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Little Egret | 2 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 3 |
| Common Moorhen | 5 |
| Common Coot | 2 |
| Pied Avocet | 20 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 2 |
| Common Ringed Plover | 6 |
| Little Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Common Sandpiper | 1 |
| Common Greenshank | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 20 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 6 |
| Ruff | 1 |
| Dunlin | 4 |
| Black-headed Gull | 30 |
| Herring Gull | 1 |
| Common Tern | 20 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 20 |
| Common Swift | 8 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 10 |
| Carrion Crow | 10 |
| Sky Lark | 1 |
| Great Tit | 4 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 2 |
| Eurasian Wren | 3 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 4 |
| Common Chiffchaff | 4 |
| Sedge Warbler | 4 |
| Eurasian Reed Warbler | 6 |
| European Robin | 11 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 8 |
| Song Thrush | 3 |
| Common Starling | 6 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 |
| Common Chaffinch | 4 |
| European Greenfinch | 3 |
| European Goldfinch | 6 |
Bird Sightings : Holme Dunes NWT
| Greylag Goose | 30 |
| Canada Goose | 6 |
| Common Shelduck | 6 |
| Mallard | 10 |
| Northern Shoveler | 1 |
| Common Teal | 6 |
| Common Pochard | 4 |
| Common Pheasant | 2 |
| Common Moorhen | 1 |
| Common Coot | 3 |
| Pied Avocet | 20 |
| Northern Lapwing | 6 |
| Common Redshank | 1 |
| Whimbrel | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 1 |
| Black-headed Gull | 30 |
| Mew Gull | 13 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 20 |
| European Turtle Dove | 1 |
| Common Swift | 4 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 2 |
| Red-breasted Flycatcher | 1 |
| Common Redstart | 2 |
| Whinchat | 1 |
| Northern Wheatear | 4 |
| European Goldfinch | 4 |
| Common Linnet | 6 |
Bird Sightings : Hunstanton Cliffs
| Northern Fulmar | 3 |