6 NOVEMBER 202 – TITCHWELL RSPB RESERVE

A 7.30 a.m. start from mine saw us arriving at Titchwell Reserve shortly before 10.00 a.m. At the car park initial excitement soon waned as we failed to connect with Firecrest/s that had been seen earlier, although we did see a male Great Spotted Woodpecker low down that was entirely unexpected. A small movement of Siskin and Goldfinches gave rise to some optimism at first, but nothing much came to fruition up to the Centre, with some chaffinches and tits moving through continually.

News at the Visitors' Centre was more encouraging, as that morning, Firecrest; Yellow-browed Warbler; Bittern; Cattle Egret; a Ring Ouzel and even an Otter had been seen at Patsy’s Pool, so that was obviously our first port of call.

On the way to the Pool, through the fen trail, we endeavoured hard to find our own birds, but even though there was hardly a trickle of wind (which was southerly in direction, as a consequence of which the day was extremely mild for November) there was hardly any movement of birds, with really no more than glimpses of mainly tits and Robins, interspersed by small flocks of Siskin; Redwings; Blackbirds and Starlings. At Patsy’s Pool just a handful of species could be seen - a lone Great Egret; a single Black-tailed Godwit; Moorhens; Coots and a couple of Teal. Across the freshwater marsh to the north one could see the occasional Western Marsh Harrier hawking over the marsh; a Red Kite; a flock of Golden Plover overhead, put up by the Harrier; another Great Egret perched on a dead tree and a Little Egret above it on the same tree. But that was about the level of birding here. John called out a Redpoll (which Mike and I missed) and the surrounding bushes gave up the occasional Goldcrest; a Blackcap; Chaffinches; more Robins; Redwings, and Blackbirds.

Suddenly, a trio of Goldcrest-type birds, alighted on the top of a nearby bush, and the leading bird to me had a clearly defined eye-stripe, so was likely to be a Firecrest, but of course the birds were off and away within seconds, with no definite conclusions as to their true identity, although chances are that they were indeed Firecrests as several birders we encountered later recorded sightings of up to three in the Willow bushes along the fen trail - which was very frustrating for us.

On the way through to the Freshwater Marsh - with everyone searching diligently through the Willows and Oaks - John suddenly called out a Yellow-browed Warbler atop a Willow, and although Mike and I gained glimpses of the bird (and were happy that it was indeed a Yellow-browed) neither of us saw the wing bars and supercilium clearly as the bird was extremely active throughout.

Out on the Freshwater Marsh, and things were markedly quiet bird-wise, probably a consequence of work parties out on the Marsh. Up at the Parrinder hide, birders were on the lookout for an American Golden Plover which had been recorded the previous day, bit it wasn’t showing. The flock of around 200 Eurasian Golden Plovers were down, together with a small number of Avocets; several duck species; Grey-Lag geese;  a sizeable flock of Northern Lapwings; a couple of Ruff; a single Curlew Sandpiper (with a broken leg); Starlings; several Meadow Pipits and a couple of Pied Wagtails.

John and Mike moved off to the beach, with me trailing by some considerable way, as I was struggling in the extremely mild conditions, feeling decidedly weak and tired. At beach I could see my companions way off in the distance - as the tide was at its lowest (indeed the lowest tide I think I’ve experience here) - and turned my attention to a small flock of Snow Buntings that had been seen along the dunes only minutes before - although by the time I’d reached the quartet of birders that had been watching them, the birds had disappeared. I eventually caught up with John and Mike who were busily scanning the beach and the flat-calm sea (in somewhat misty conditions). They’d seen good numbers of Red-throated Divers, but little else of note, whilst on the beach the selection of birds was more encouraging, with around one hundred Knot; Oystercatchers; some Dunlin; a singleton Sanderling; a Bar-tailed Godwit; several Gull species…………. and a Great Egret.

On the way back to the car, news of the sighting of the American Golden Plover from  the Parrinder Hide came through, though by the time I  arrived at the scene a sizeable contingent of birders with their scopes trained on the marsh were present. I wasn’t sure if I stood a chance, but a call from John gave me an opportunity to view the bird through his scope - although as soon as I put my eyes to the lens, there was a flurry of activity as a Marsh Harrier quartered the marsh and put up everything in sight, and I thought my chance had gone. But within a short space of time, the Plover was back down and showing reasonably well amongst some Northern Lapwings.

On the way back to John’s car, I struggled once more to keep up and realised at one stage that I was having a diabetic hypo - more than likely the cause of a lack of nourishment and water. We’d planned to return to the car much earlier to eat our lunches, but circumstances prevented us from doing so. Luckily, I always carry glucose tablets with me, so within a few minutes I’d recovered sufficiently to make my way back - with excellent views of a Water Rail along a dyke near to the Visitors’ Centre; a lovely Roe Deer in the fields, and a late Common Darter dragonfly to spur me on.

Back at the car park, John and Mike were scanning the bushes hoping to see a Firecrest, and as I was jettisoning my gear John spotted one literally twenty feet or so away, and gained superb views of a stunning male, along with another that joined it briefly. So, in the end we got our Firecrest, better than we’d ever dare hope. Of course, I tried to photograph the bird, but the combination of quite dense vegetation and the overzealous activity of the bird (well, that at least was normal for the species) made it virtually impossible to get a good shot. But it was very well-timed and was very probably the highlight of our day.

But we hadn’t finished just yet, as an impromptu visit to a field in Burnham Norton (just along the coast road from Titchwell) where Cattle Egrets had been seen recently amongst the cows, yielded a flyover Egret of the Cattle kind - a definite bonus with which to end the day.

It had been a hard slog at times trying to see the Passerine species, and we were definitely ‘chasing shadows’ (as Mike put it) for a good portion of the morning. And although it wasn’t necessarily a stand-out day overall (at least it wasn't for me at times) there were some exceptional highlights. And that was great.

Regrettably, no photographs as the camera was largely redundant.