Welcome to another recent sightings installment from Titchwell Marsh.
Birdlife
A walk along the meadow trail towards Patsy’s screen this week has revealed a few Cetti’s warblers calling to one another.
Once at Patsy’s screen the pool has continued to host a good number of coot and gadwall. The red-crested pochard occasionally appear as does one of the now near resident great white egrets. The house martins and swallows can be observed skimming across the water catching flies.
One of our eagle-eyed visitors spotted a purple heron last Friday, dropping into the reedbed, unfortunately no one else has seen it since. We suspect another marsh harrier nest fledged this week with 3 young, bringing this year’s total to 11 fledged young.
This week saw the opening of the Autumn Trail and Island Hide both providing enhanced views of the Freshmarsh. Highlights on here this week have included 400+ avocet, 40 golden plovers, a little stint, 2 greenshanks, common sandpipers, black-tailed godwits, 30+ ruff and a couple of little ringed plovers. But it isn’t just wading birds that you will find on Freshmarsh, varying numbers of spoonbill (max count of 23) are often found alongside a great white egret or two and today (Thursday) 2 cattle egrets appeared this morning for a couple of hours. From island hide a water rail has been spotted skulking amongst the reeds as well as bearded tits. An evening visit can result in several yellow-legged gulls dropping into roost; 3 were recorded on Tuesday.
Common sandpiper, RSPB Images
Down on the tidal marsh, a noticeable increase in grey plover and oystercatcher have been observed. And at long last we finally have ringed plover chicks on the beach. This is the first clutch of eggs to hatch this year, so let's keep our fingers crossed that they make it to fledging stage. Other birds on the beach include bar tailed godwits, black-tailed godwits, whimbrel and curlew.
On the sea little, common and sandwich terns continue to be seen and if you are lucky you may see an arctic skua.
Butterflies
The warm weather is great for butterflies with the following having been observed this week: wall, meadow brown, gatekeeper, small tortoiseshell, red admiral, common blue and our site manager caught a glimpse of a silver-washed fritillary.
Red Admiral, RSPB Images
There is still time to take part in the Big Butterfly count organised by Butterfly Conservation.
Dragonflies
The autumn trail is brilliant walk to search for dragonflies and damselflies it is packed with common darters and ruddy darters. Black-tailed skimmers are often encountered skimming low along the paths and if you are lucky you might spot a banded demoiselle.
Banded demoiselle, RSPB Images
That is it for this week’s sightings but do let us know what you see either when you are at Titchwell or via our social media channels
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Twitter: www.twitter.com/rspbtitchwell
A nice Little Stint by the main path today- just what Trevor ordered :)
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Me? pass on info about stuff I've seen???