Welcome to another weekly round up of what has been seen at RSPB Titchwell.
Car Park / Visitor Centre / Meadow Trail / Fen Trail
A pair of spotted flycatchers remain in the area around the welcome hub and meadow trail. We have seen an arrival of baby blackbirds who like to walk all over the picnic tables!
In amongst the willows you can see chiffchaffs, blackcaps, a garden warbler has occasionally been heard in the car park.
Blackbird, Les Bunyan
The turtle doves remain very elusive this year, though we have managed to capture them on the trail camera that we have set up in their feeding area.
An osprey flew west over the fen trail on 31/5
Reedbed / Patsy’s reedbed / East Trail
Within the reedbed two marsh harrier chicks have now fledged, this is generally early for these birds. Bearded tits have fledged their first broods, with one family showing quite well at the beginning of the week.
Reed warblers and sedge warblers have been showing off to visitors this week as they fledge their first broods and prepare for a second.
The bittern continues to boom, and a few visitors have managed to catch a glimpse of it. We have yet to see a female, but we remain hopeful that there is one. Two great white egrets have been using the reedbed including Patsy’s and the reedbed pool.
A male red crested pochard has occasionally been seen on Patsy’s along with gadwall, shoveler, pochard and tufted duck.
Along the hedgerows the lesser whitethroats and whitethroats can be heard singing and a cuckoo can often be heard.
The bird of the week has been the two beeaters that flew west over the reserve on Thursday 27/5 which a lucky visitor manage to spot.
Bearded tit, Les Bunyan
Freshmarsh
Bird numbers remain low on the Freshmarsh which continues to reflect other sites in the area. The black-headed gulls are hatching their young which has seen an increase in marsh harriers flying over and trying to grab a snack for their youngsters. The odd Mediterranean gull can be heard flying over, but we would recommend visiting our Snettisham reserve if you would like to them breeding.
Winter lingers on with up to 4 brent geese still loitering around the Freshmarsh.
There has been an increase in wader diversity this week with a little stint around most days along with a common sandpiper, little ringed plover (2), tundra ringed plover (10) and a curlew sandpiper on 3/6. A few black-tailed godwits dropped into the Freshmarsh, including ‘E27’ a colour ringed black tailed godwit that was ringed at our RSPB Nene Washes in 2018. It attempted to breed this year but sadly the attempt was abandoned. You can find out more about British breeding black-tailed godwits at https://projectgodwit.org.uk/
Up to five spoonbills have been counted this week over the reserve including a couple dropping in to sleep on the freshmarsh.
Curlew sandpiper, Les Bunyan
Volunteer / Tidal Marsh
Small numbers of non-breeding oystercatchers remain roosting on these areas as the tide comes in along with small flocks of turnstones, dunlin and sanderlings.
Turnstone, Les Bunyan
Beach / Sea
Although this time of year can be relatively quiet on the sea a small number of gannets and fulmars have been seen in recent days. Also on the sea and in the creeks are little terns, common terns and sandwich terns.
Along the waters edge a few sanderlings and dunlin remain, whilst on upper beach we have recorded 7 pairs of ringed plovers; this is our highest number for nearly 10 years and very encouraging.
Fulmar, Les Bunyan
If you are visiting why not enter your sightings on to BirdTrack. Your records support species conservation at local, regional, national and international scales. For more information follow the link https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/birdtrack