No it's not a bittern booming from the reedbed but mortars booming from the brackish marsh.
It would appear that battles have always occured at Titchwell and always will. Some of these battles are subtle like the small mites that lay their eggs in the leaves of trees so that their young have a place to grow and feed, others are less subtle like the constant backwards and forwards of the beach as violent winter storms pound the shore but some are just loud and explosive and that is what we had today.
Over the past few weeks we have had contractors on site surveying the areas where we want to dig for unexploded ordnance - or bombs to you and me! Today saw the culmination of this part of the coastal change project with four controlled explosions destroying the hazardous finds from Titchwells war torn past.
The reserve used to be a tank range and the shells, grenades and mortars from that era were still present in some areas of the marshes. Thankfully after todays events all of the obviously dangerous ones, those on the surface, have been destroyed. So hopefully the next booming you will hear will be that of a bittern in the spring of 2011.