The above was a comment on our comment board in Parrinder hide earlier this week.
On the board we ask people to write comments about what has made them smile (or frown) on their visit to the reserve. Below is just a selection of comments made by children on the board over the last two weeks weeks.
Avocet’s tails blowing in the wind...
Birds displaying...
Going rock pooling...
I enjoyed doing Spot-it!. Last time I did it I scored 730 points...
Grey lagged geese because they are very beautiful...
I was sad to leave because I had one more duck on my list to complete. I found some ducks I had never seen before!...
It was fab because I saw loads of new birds...
It was fantastic - it was awesome I got see to see a marsh harrier...
It is lovely to see children engaged by nature and the environment. The Easter hols have began....why not bring your family down? Their comments and excitement will make you smile as well!
Another lovely spring morning and the birds are really responding. Around the carpark there are 2 male blackcaps and 2 male chiffchaffs singing and the marsh harriers are very active displaying over the reedbed. Best of all was a pair of garganey on the fresh marsh.I first heard the birds calling on the new reedbed area before they flew to the fresh marsh. There are plenty of male Cetti's warblers singing around the reedbed, all we need now is for the bittern to start booming.
For the last couple of weeks we have been lucky enough to have a short-eared owl hunting in the grazing meadow at the southern end of the west bank path.
It can be seen most afternoons after 3pm and on occasions it has shown astonishingly well, often perching on fence posts just fifty metres from the path.It may even be a left over from the incredible migration spectacle we witnessed last autumn.
If you are keen to see to see it, then I would come down fairly quickly as it will soon be heading back to the breeding grounds in the north or across in Scandinavia.
These images were taken by Andy Thompson who volunteers for us on the information desk.
As part of a national monitoring scheme run jointly by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Hawl and Owl Trust, we have been counting the harriers that roost on the reserve over the last winter. The main aim of the scheme is to get an accurate assesment of the number of hen and marsh harriers that winter annually in the UK. Feeding on small birds, small mammals and carrion, both hen and marsh harriers can cover large areas during a winters' day to find enough food to survive and so provide a challenge to get accurate figures. Thankfully they are creatures of habit which is a great help to those of us carrying out the counts. Although they wander over large areas by day, they return to traditional roosting sites in the late afternoon and this is where we count them.
As a general rule, hen harriers are a winter visitor to southern England and can be found hunting and roosting along the coastal marshes whereas marsh harriers are a summer visitor. In recent times, increasing numbers of marsh harriers are wintering in the UK and large numbers can been found roosting at several sites.
Titchwell has a history of supporting a hen harrier roost and double figure counts were recorded throughout the 1980's with an amazing 22 birds roosting on the saltmarsh in March 1982! These days we are not seeing anywhere near these numbers although this winter we have recorded four roosting individuals. Most of the records are of ringtails (females or young males) with the occasional stunning grey male. Marsh harriers have gone in the opposite direction in their numbers. They didn't start breeding at Titchwell until 1980 and the population remains stable at 4-6 pairs. Recently, more birds have been wintering and this year we have seen record numbers. In late November 2011 we recorded 28 birds together over the reedbed as they prepared to drop into the roost!
The birds must have known that it was the last count of the year last night as they put on a real show for us. First up was a short-eared owl hunting over the grazing meadow as we walked down the path. Just as we arrived at our spot on the main path, a female hen harrier drifted over the grazing marsh pool and headed out of sight onto the saltmarsh. Next up were 2 kestrels west and a distant sparrowhawk near the dead trees. As the light started to fade, the marsh harriers started to arrive. Unfortunatley most of them were distant over the tidal reedbed but we had positioned David on Gypsy Lane where he was closer and could get an accurate count. Another sparrowhawk put in a close fly-past and then the hen harrier put in another appearance before dropping into roost just after 6pm. We ended the evening with two late marsh harriers taking the total to 13 birds. With an amazing purple sunset, it was fitting way to end the winter monitoring.
If you fancy the chance of watching harriers, owls, egrets and Chinese water deer, why not come along next winter and experience the roost for yourself?
Here's the latest from Ray, sorry its a little late:
I've had an excellent couple of weeks, with seven new species going onto the Ray's Rambles list which now stands at 962, my year list has leapt to 291.
A tiny orange fungi, coral spot fungus, was found on several twigs laying at the side of the car park and two bright red weevils, apious frumentarium, on the Island Hide window - these weevils have no common name. The real interest has been on the beach, where there was a major wreck of sea creatures following a northerly gale. There were literally tens of thousands of starfish and tubeworms and millions of razorshells washed up. The tubeworms, (pectinaria sp) live in long, fragile, conical tubes made out of sand grains. Virtually all the razorshells were of an American species that was introduced into The Wash several years ago, they are smaller than our pod razors and have a distinct curve in the shell. I also found the remains of a large lobster, the shell of a great scallop and a few common sunstars. Other creatures found that were already on my list were at least 20 dabs, hundreds of slipper limpets and dozens of green shore crabs. I had a very interesting conversation with a man who was doing a commercial shellfish survey, he told me about the American razors, and how, if you crush a piece of hornwrack, it will give off a strong smell of lemons, hence the local fishermen's name for it - lemonweed. He also answered a question that has bugged me for years. I've often heard people talk of 'swinners', I thought that they were undersized crabs, but it turns out that it is the local name for the green shore crab. You live and learn! Ray Kimber.