Hello
Welcome to the latest instalment of what has been sighted at Titchwell over the past couple of days. This weekend with strong northerly winds forecast a spot of sea watching was on the cards.
Friday
Totals for the day were 26 great skua, 5 arctic skua, 1 long tailed skua and a steady stream of gannets, fulmars, common terns, sandwich terns and kittiwakes all heading west.
Saturday
Between 6am – 9am another sea watch session occurred (all birds heading west unless stated): 40 gannet, 16 great skua and 5 east, 16 Arctic skua, 5 pintail, 114 teal, 14 wigeon, 4 shelduck, 7 fulmar and 3 east, 4 kittiwake and 3 east, 7 common scoter. There were also plenty of birds on the horizon that were too distant to identify.
Sunday
Between 06.40 – 09.30 all birds went west unless stated: 3 sooty shearwater, 2 Manx shearwater, 21 great skua, 30 Arctic skua, 35 gannet (5 east), 4 fulmar, 89 wigeon, 22 teal, 2 pintail, little tern plus plenty more birds on the horizon that were unidentifiable.
Great Skua, RSPB Images
Car Park / visitor centre
Away from the sea and back in the car park and visitor centre where it is largely sheltered from a northerly wind large tit flocks (long-tailed tits and blue tits) have been moving through the bushes. In amongst them have been double figures of chiff chaffs with the odd willow warbler.
In the horse paddocks a small flock of yellow wagtails were searching for insects whilst a wheatear hopped about the muck heap. On Monday a couple of wheatears were observed in the dunes at Thornham Point.
On Sunday the distinctive football rattle call of the Mistle thrush was heard by the visitor centre and a goldcrest was heard singing.
Reedbed
Pochard numbers have increased with a max count of 38 occurring this week on Patsy’s. There are also 4 little grebes plus coots, gadwall and teal on here. On Monday one of the great white egrets was showing quite well whilst it was busy catching fish and a bittern has been seen, again for the lucky few.
Great white egret, Les Bunyan
Freshmarsh
As we would expect at this time of the year there has been a steady turnover of waders on the Freshmarsh, some merely touching down for just a couple of minutes.
Highlights have included a small flock of 8 curlew sandpipers on Sunday evening who spent some time busily feeding before taking off and heading west. But there generally has been at least one curlew sandpiper and 2 little stints amongst the 50+ dunlin. Other highlights have included 58 bar tailed godwits, 55 knot, 40+ golden plover, 3 green sandpiper, common sandpiper, spotted redshank and greenshank. Black-tailed godwit numbers have been varying considerably from none to 300 at various points throughout the day.
Duck numbers are beginning to build with 12 wigeon dropping in on Saturday and a single pintail on Sunday. This weather has also brought in single black terns on Sunday and Monday.
Other highlights
A scan along the fence lines and brambles in the neighbouring grazing marsh revealed 2 stonechats and 2 whinchats on Monday.
On Sunday there was a small passage of swifts going through and feeding flocks of swallows, house martins and sand martins can be observed over the water bodies.
The warm weather and drop in wind on Monday also produced a small amount of raptor passage of 9 buzzards, marsh harrier and red kite drifting through.
We hope you continue to enjoy these sightings blogs but as always we welcome feedback
Thanks
Lizzie
North West Norfolk Reserves Warden