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…

Due to the increasing popularity of the Snettisham Wader Spectacles, our little team receives a large amount of the same questions. We think you'll find the answer to most of your questions here...

What is the Wader Spectacle?
The wading bird spectacle at RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk sees clouds of tens of thousands of birds shimmer together as the rising tide pushes them off the vast mudflats, with the commotion of…

Due to the increasing popularity of the Snettisham Wader Spectacles, our little team receives a large amount of the same questions. We think you'll find the answer to most of your questions here...

What is the Wader Spectacle?
The wading bird spectacle at RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk sees clouds of tens of thousands of birds shimmer together as the rising tide pushes them off the vast mudflats, with the commotion of…

by Sue Bryan

September is a month that birdwatchers look forward to, as it tends to be the month when most of the autumn migration starts, with the potential of big falls of breeding birds that have bred in Scandinavia and further north. The month also has the exciting prospect of some easterly winds bringing some rarer birds that the keener birders like to see to add to their lists.

This particular September, after quite…

 An exciting update from Wynona, our Ringed Plover Project Officer

 

After waving off the last fledged chicks of the season in late August, the Plovers in Peril project team are excited to share with you just how special this year has been. 

After three seasons of work to provide much needed protection for beach nesting birds at this key site between Snettisham and Heacham, and the fantastic efforts of those visiting the…

August is often a quiet month for birdwatchers, as they often divert to other wildlife watching, particularly butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies. However, the poor weather that dominated July continued into the beginning of August,which meant our visitors continued to focus on the birds,especially sea birds that the windy weather brought closer to shore. Many visitors were delighted in sightings of Spoonbills which…

Due to the increasing popularity of the Snettisham Wader Spectacles, our little team receives a large amount of the same questions. We think you'll find the answer to most of your questions here...

What is the Wader Spectacle?
The wading bird spectacle at RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk sees clouds of tens of thousands of birds shimmer together as the rising tide pushes them off the vast mudflats, with the commotion of…

Things are looking different on the beaches at Snettisham and Heacham South!

The recent big tides, though dramatic to watch, arrived at a frustrating time for our beach nesting birds, with a few pairs of Ringed Plover still with eggs in their nests. For some birds, these nests were their last chance at success this year but with tides of over 7m (and some!) combined with strong winds whipping up the waves, sadly the remaining…

With the breeding season still in full swing in July, our visitors were delighted to have more opportunities at seeing young birds as balls of fluff, which is the case with young gulls and waders. Feeding flights are necessary, which means that parent birds are more visible, especially those that like to lurk in the reedbed! Bearded Tits are one of our iconic birds which our visitors constantly want to see. July is the…

June: At long last the cold northerly winds abated during the month and some summer sun and heat arrived.

It was welcomed by the birds, wildlife and our visitors alike at Titchwell.

Our birds settled down to breeding and looking after their young, delighting our visitors who could watch feeding flights, young birds hatching, as well as little balls of fluff running after parents begging for food. Some birds still arriving…

Our ringed plover project officer Wynona shares stories from a morning’s nest monitoring and how we can help keep them safe on our visit to the beach!

Each day, we make our way along the beach in search of treasure. A steady walk along a linear beach, a beautiful patchwork of shingle and soft sand banked up on the wind against the marram grass. Eyes trained on the upper shore, ears pricked for a telling sound, hands…

'The restless cuckoo absent long

And twittering swallows chimney song’………..

...so wrote one of our renowned English poets John Clare. The month of May brims with promise, lengthening days and the anticipation of so many birds arriving or just passing through. Titchwell is one of the premier reserves where those who enjoy the delights of spring can come and listen to the Cuckoo (image far…

After a long cold winter, April always excites the birdwatchers as more migrants arrive. Here's Sue with our early spring sightings...

 At Titchwell the keen visitors have their eyes and ears open for the birds that forge ahead in their migration for the year’s breeding cycle. This year the early migrants were met with cold northerly winds that dominated most of the month of April’s weather. However, our visitors are…

Snowy Owl

By the middle of March, most of us are keen to see the back of winter’s dark, cold wet days and we’re not opposed to shooing March out of the door as quickly as it arrived. But sometimes, a late winter can be a birder’s best friend. Around Mother’s Day in 2018, probably due to the unusually cold temperatures that had been holding on since January, a female Snowy Owl made an unexpected visit to Titchwell. Most…

The passionate team of volunteers delivering ‘Plovers in Peril’ are full of hope that 2023 will be another successful year for a very special beach nesting bird in decline.

Image: Les Bunyan (taken with a telephoto lens to avoid disturbance to the birds)

This RSPB led project in partnership with Wild Ken Hill and funded by the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, is helping vulnerable birds like…