Titchwell’s Moth Mornings sightings June 2024 by Sue Bryan

Poor weather dominated the first half of the month, with not only a lot of rain, but low night temperatures as well. This had a huge effect on the numbers of moths flying and moth catches throughout the county of Norfolk where the number of both moths and the number of moth species were very low.

Poplar Hawk-moth  Photo Credit: Paul Hooper

Buff Tip  Photo…

Titchwell’s June Sightings          30^th June 2024           Sue Bryan

‘Rain, rain, go away…….

Come again another day’…..

……so thought many of our visitors as they arrived on holiday expecting June to be hot and sunny at the beginning of the month. Luckily here at Titchwell we have 3 hides where even on the wettest of days, it is possible to sit out of the rain and wind, to watch spectacular displays…

An exciting update from the Plovers in Peril project team

We are so excited to share that the first chicks of the season have hatched on Snettisham and Heacham beaches! 

With all that rain and wind keeping them clinging to the safety of the egg for just a little longer, we have been on the edge of our seats waiting for them to hatch safely, but some sun (at last!) has coaxed them out, and with chicks hatching from ten…

Titchwell’s Moth Mornings sightings May 2024 by Sue Bryan

Despite the weather often being wet, after an interlude at the beginning of the month of good weather, moth mornings in May have been a great improvement on late April, with a total of 111 species trapped on the reserve.

Wednesday 29^th May produced 143 moths of 59 species.  Highlights have included the reedbed and wetland specialists Reed Dagger, Flame W…

Titchwell’s May Sightings          31st May 2024           Sue Bryan

‘There is no time like Spring

When life’s alive in everything

Before new nestlings sing

Before cleft swallows speed their journey back

Along the trackless track

God guides their wing

He spreads their table that they nothing lack

Before the daisy grows a common flower

Before the sun has power

To scorch the world up in his noontide hour’

So wrote…

Titchwell’s Moth Mornings sightings April 2024 by Sue Bryan

Moth mornings in April started quite well, with a total of 58 moths of 19 species recorded in the first two weeks of the month. 

Highlights included Dotted Chestnut, one of the relatively small number of moths which overwinter as adults, flying in late-autumn, then re-emerging in spring (mostly March-April). This has been a scarce moth in Norfolk until recently…

Titchwell’s April Sightings          30^th April 2024           Sue Bryan

At long last the incessant rain seemed to have abated at the beginning of the month only to have started again for a week in the middle of the month, as April started to jump into action and spring seemed to be in the air. The temperatures rose a little at the start of the month and we were treated to some strong southerly winds on the 6^th/7^th from storm Kathleen…

Now that the weather has improved, especially with the night-time temperatures rising, our summer moth mornings will commence in April. These will take place on Wednesday morning starting at 10am and finishing at 12 noon and organised by two of our very able and willing volunteers. To make sure that things would run smoothly, we had a trial session on 27th March, which produced a reasonable start to the moth morning season…

Titchwell’s March Sightings       31st March 2024           Sue Bryan

Never mind March, we know

You’re not really mad

Or angry or bad

You’re only blowing the winter away.

To get the world ready

For April and May

so wrote a key stage one child when asked to write a poem about March for their teacher. Underneath they had drawn a delightful picture of some pretty flowers and butterflies giving us all hope that spring is…

Titchwell’s February Sightings          29th February 2024           Sue Bryan

The days are short and dark, the weather is often cold and grumpy, and it’s easy to feel like winter will never end but February is a month of transitions, as the cold weather and short days begin to give way to the early signs of spring.

The month started with a couple of storms and what seemed like never-ending rain, causing some of our paths to…

Today, we bid farewell to our skilled contractors as they loaded up the amphibious excavators and took them away from the reserve.

The robust structure supporting the freshmarsh outfall pipes in the east saltmarsh and the upgrades to the freshwater marsh are now complete!

Completed freshwater marsh outfall structure - photo credit: James Thomson, RSK Habitat Management 

We're thrilled with both the new outfall and the…

What a week of significant progress!

Additional stone has arrived and most is now in position to fortify the outfall against slumping and scouring, and we’re pleased to say the outfall structure performed exceptionally well during the substantial tides at the beginning of the week. No saltwater ingress has been recorded.

Freshmarsh outfall with anti-scour/slump protection - photo credit: James Thomson, RSK Habitat…

They're in! The gabion structure is now in place, supporting the freshwater marsh's outfall pipes within the east saltmarsh. They're functioning beautifully, and the lower water levels at the beginning of the week attracted increased numbers of waders, including 2000+ Golden Plover, 1000 Lapwing, Avocets, and Ruff.

Our Warden, Ryan, delighted by being able to lower water levels - photo credit: Hayley Roa…

Titchwell is not only a fabulous bird reserve but is also a fantastic place to see other wildlife too. On Wednesday mornings, Julie, John and Roger, some of our wonderful volunteers run and organize a moth morning, where from 9.30am onwards until 12.30pm they open up the moth trap that we have left running throughout the night to see what moths have been lured to the light during the hours of darkness.

Although moths…

January has arrived, signalling the beginning of a new year and bringing a rejuvenating energy that inspires us to embrace every possibility of a life of bird and wildlife watching that awaits in the days ahead! 

It’s a month of resolutions, fresh starts, and the hopeful anticipation of a year filled with time to enjoy our wonderful wildlife and nature that surrounds us.  Here at Titchwell we are blessed with an amazing…

Battling through some challenges this week! Working on the edge of a saltmarsh creek with its relentless tidal cycle brings with it a unique set of difficulties. Over the past seven days we faced a collapse during excavation, and racing against the tide became a daily struggle.

Picture this – standing on the east bank, winds howling, rain drizzling, and excavations giving way. It was disappointing to say the least as…

Substantial progress this week! The existing large pipes connecting compartments within the freshmarsh have been unearthed, and so far one has been replaced with a smaller diameter, lower-positioned pipe. Once they're all in we will have much improved water control!  

Amphibious excavators installing pipes connecting the north west and south west compartments on freshmarsh - photo credit: Ryan Doggart

While six more…

In a blink, the freshmarsh has undergone remarkable changes since our last update seven days ago.

Now featuring a fully bunded southeast carrier ditch, crafted to redirect water away from the southwest compartment. Once pipes are installed, water will flow seamlessly through this ditch into the tilting weir and out to the outfall in the saltmarsh without causing a stir in the eastern compartment. The northern carrier…

Prepare for a plot twist – because, well, things in the marsh rarely stick to the script!

After our recent update: https://community.rspb.org.uk/placestovisit/titchwellmarsh/b/titchwellmarsh-blog/posts/pipe-dreams-at-titchwell we’ve had some head scratching, and a generous sprinkle of contractor wizardry, which has led to flipping the programme on its head, all thanks to a delay with steelwork needed for the…

With winter now firmly upon us, our cold, wet days were interspersed with some lovely bright sunny days when the sight of skeins of Pink-footed Geese from Iceland and Greenland, along with Brent Geese from Arctic Russia delighted our staff, volunteers and visitors alike. However, most of the birding focus was directed at sightings from the sea as our scoter flock had returned from their breeding grounds near rivers and…

At Titchwell, managing water levels is a bit like playing Goldilocks – everyone's after that perfect balance! Some shout 'too high!', others cry 'too low!', but landing where everyone agrees on that 'just-right' level is as tricky as spotting a unicorn in the water! It's a mix of work and art, keeping our warden tap-dancing to find the sweet spot!

But behind this balancing act lies…

Introduction

As the Christmas day moves ever closer and the days get shorter and colder, I often find myself slipping into a reflective mood, thinking of all the ups and downs of another year coming to its end. So, the perfect time to review another great year (with a few challenges) on the marsh here at Titchwell.

Winter habitat management (Jan-March 2023)

For the reserve team, the year began, as it always does, up to…

Titchwell’s November Sightings          30th November 2023           Sue Bryan

‘Rivers raging flood roadside ditches filled

creeks and culverts overflowed

roadbeds washed out from below

every November is the same

still we drive on through the rain’

wrote Puti Ira when she composed her poem ‘Rain’

Here at Titchwell, we drove on through the rain as the change in the weather brought lots of rain and challenging…

by           Sue Bryan

Most unusually the fine warm, sometimes hot weather continued until the middle of the month. It was very unseasonal for the time of year which meant that some birds stayed on the reserve perhaps a bit longer than usual. Blackcaps and Bearded Tits continued to be seen on still sunny days and sightings came in thick and fast because our visitors enjoyed their visit and came into the shop to report their…

Introduction

When I think of reedbeds, my mind conjures wonderful pictures of calm slow-flowing waters. Gently swaying reed, changing colours from golden yellows, purples and green with differing time, light and season. The noises made by their often-secretive inhabitants – the “plop” of a Water Vole entering the ditch, the pinging of Bearded Tits or the rustling of reed as a Bittern stalks its prey on the edges of a…