Titchwell Marsh

Ray's History - No 10 1983

Pernille Egeberg — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:47:06 GMT

The fact that Titchwell was getting more and more popular didn't surprise me at all. I for one was going down there three or four times a week, the start of an ongoing obsession. Not only were there a great variety of birds to see, I started to meet some excellent people who shared my interests. It was, and still is, a very friendly, relaxing place to visit. Not that I was relaxed in May 1983, I was really cheesed off. I'd had a phone call telling me there was a Baird's sandpiper on the brackish marsh. I arrived to be told that it had flown off over the saltmarsh, the same thing happened on the next four evenings. Not happy - this would have been a new species for me and with it the bonus of being a very rare springtime bird. I'd heard no mention of anyone seeing it the next day so had no expectations at all, and then there it was, slowly walking towards me along the muddy edge of the brackish marsh. I watched it all on my own for over 15 minutes before it went out of sight and I may well have been the last person to see it. There were no subsequent records.

On June 25th the phone rang again, this time it was for a female summer-plumaged Wilson's phalarope. Whereas my last rarity had taken me six days to find, this one, which finished off my set of phalaropes, took less than six minutes. What a lovely bird she was with pale yellow legs, a peachy flush on her upper breast and neck, a white rump and, probably her most striking feature, a broad black stripe that started in front of the eye and continued down the side of her neck. For any readers who do not know this family, it is the females who carry the brightest colours. Her behaviour struck me as being rather like that of a spotted redshank by spending a lot of time wading and only having short spells of swimming. These were two great birds, but what came the following year was even better.

Ray

Weekly wildlife roundup - Spring...?

Paul Eele — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:55 GMT

With no let up in the northerly winds, new spring migrants have been thin on the ground this week although there has a few bright moments. The highlight was a spotted flycatcher feeding for much of the day in the shelter of the picnic area. They are getting much rarer these days so it always nice to catch up with one.

Spoonbill - Spanish colour-ringed bird (FJ9) feeding on the saltmarsh throughout the week

Red crested pochard - drake present all week but mobile

Little ringed plover - 5 on fresh marsh including a pair on Patsy's reedbed

Greenshank - 1 on Volunteer Marsh on the 17th

Little stint - adult on reserve 13th - 14th

Common sandpiper - 2 on fresh marsh on 15th

Montagu's harrier - possible female hunting over Thornham saltmarsh briefly on the 14th

Hobby - 2 hunting swifts on 16th

Wheatear - 2 present during the week

Spotted flycatcher - 1 in picnic area on 16th

You’re late!

Paul Eele — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:35:00 GMT

17 days late to be precise! The first cuckoo was heard at Titchwell on 20 April but there was no sign of cuckooflower, a springtime plant named because it’s flowering time traditionally coincides with the arrival of the first cuckoo and the beginning of spring. It has taken another 17 days before its pale pink flowers came into bloom on the meadow trail.

So what’s going on? A cold March hot (or should that be cold) on the heels of a cold winter have stopped plants in their tracks. Many plants are up to a month late, waiting for a rise in temperature.

The cuckoo on the other-hand has arrived back from Africa around the usual time. Arrival dates vary between different parts of the country, but traditionally it is around 14 April (St. Tiburtius' Day). The first bird recorded in the UK in 2013 was on 31 March in Devon whilst here at Titchwell it was the 20 April.

So at long last we can enjoy cuckooflower, a plant that has many alternative names including lady’s smock which may refer to the slightly cupped nature of the petals, although there is another more suggestive explanation. The word `smock` was once used as a slightly suggestive term for a woman, and there may be allusions in the name to what went on in springtime meadows.

The plants lower leaves can be eaten as a substitute for watercress to which it is closely related (Brassica family) and is rich in vitamin C. No picking!

Neil Lincoln, Reserve Assistant

Old favourite returns

Paul Eele — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:26:53 GMT

A spoonbill that has been kicking around the reserve for the last couple of weeks was finally seen well feeding on the saltmarsh over our Wings over Titchwell event last weekend and it turns out to be our old favourite FJ9. Originally ringed as a chick on 2007 in Spain, the bird has favoured the North Norfolk coast since it was first seen at Titchwell in April 2011. The bird spent much of the summer on the reserve and this is the first sighting this year.

Despite the unfavourable weather conditions, we ended up with a decent species list for Wings over Titchwell with 100 bird species on Saturday and 101 on Sunday. Adding the non avian species such as Chinese water deer, large red damselfly, water vole and 4 species of butterfy took the overall list to nearly 120.

8 species of raptor (marsh harrier, red kite, peregrine, merlin, hobby, kestrel, sparrowhawk, buzzard), 2 black terns, long eared owl briefly on the Meadow Trail and drake red crested pochard were the avian highlights. Sadly the Temminck's stint decided to do a moonlight flit on the Friday night but a full summer plumage male ruff was a stunning sight.

Ray's History - No 9. 1980

Pernille Egeberg — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:31:00 GMT

At the end of 1980, work started on a new hide at the north side of the freshmarsh. This hide was to be in memory of RSPB council member John Parrinder.

The first part of this job was to construct a double bank to screen the new footpath leading to the hide. Later, in 1981, the hide's foundations were put in and the hide was officially opened by Mrs Parrinder on March 20th the following year. This all sounds so simple but, from one or two people who helped to build the hide, it was pure hell. Alan Livingstone was one of Norman's team, he told me that each section had to be manhandled down the west bank and then over or through deep mud, the high winds, drizzle and snow just added to the pleasure. Carting barrow loads of hardcore was no fun either, I've only done that a couple of times and I can tell you that west bank seems never ending !

The work was back-breaking, smelly and incredibly dirty. It didn't put him off Titchwell Marsh, I bump into him quite often and although he tells these stories, knowing Alan I bet there were a few laughs as well.

A very recent coincidence happened when visitor officer Pernille Egeberg (originally born in Denmark) started to work here, Alan told me that he had worked a year in Denmark for her father, it's a small world.

The west bank hide, the island hide as we now know it, was started off later but finished much sooner than Parrinder hide. It was much easier, a Hy-mac cut through the bump next to the old war-time building and basically all that had to be done after that was to assemble the sections and build a bridge so that we all could get to it.

1981 saw the brackish marsh finally operating as intended and the reserve was all systems go.

Did the birds like all the hard work that had been put in? They certainly did. I remember talking to Norman at this time, he said that there had been an explosion of aquatic life caused by the old saltmarsh vegetation rotting away below the fresh water. What struck me was the noise, I had never heard so many birds calling over our marshes. Two birds have stuck in my mind from 1982, both on the freshmarsh, one was a lovely drake smew, the other was a Coscoroba swan. This South American bird was an escape from a collection and certainly un-tickable, this species is not a true swan. It is considerably smaller than any of our regular swans, has a bright red beak and black wing tips. The native mute swans took a real dislike to it, beating it up quite badly, not the way to treat an overseas visitor!

Ray

Wings over Titchwell

Paul Eele — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:46:20 GMT

If you are visiting the North Norfolk coast this weekend, why not pop into Titchwell and let us show you some of the amazing wildlife that makes its home here. You will be able to see breeding avocets and marsh harriers, have a look for feeding water voles along the boardwalk and enjoy some of the early spring flowers around the Meadow Trail.

There will be knowledgeable staff and volunteers stationed around the reserve who will be able to help you identify the species and tell you about the reserve. We will be keeping a running total of the bird species over the weekend and you will be able to help us with that by collecting your own checklist from the visitor centre, keeping a tally while you are walking around and then updating the 'master list' on your return.

The event will be running from 09:30 - 4pm and you can turn up whenever you like

Hello, good evening and welcome

Paul Eele — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:26:52 GMT

Hello, I am the new Conservation Intern at Titchwell Marsh Reserve. I have the pleasure of being placed at Titchwell for the next six months, learning as much as I possibly can about the management and day-to-day running of the reserve. My degree in Environmental Management and growing up in rural Scotland gave me a passion for the outdoors and all wildlife, which has led me to pursue a career in conservation. I love birding and definitely have a lot to learn, but I am in an amazing place to do so. Hopefully over the next few months I’ll give you a bit of an insight into life at Titchwell and some of the fantastic things that I’ve been seeing and doing during my time here.

I have now been at Titchwell for six enjoyable weeks and have been amazed at the beauty of the area. With a late spring things have been slow arriving and growing but Titchwell is now busy and the air filled with the sound of warblers, skylarks and calling cuckoos!

One of my favourite birds so far has been the marsh harriers. Watching them come into roost so graceful, circling round and round to pick the best spot is brilliant, while seeing them sky dance going to great heights so they are barely visible and then tumbling down has been a highlight of my time here. There is one female that has some missing primary feathers, leading to a raggedy look on her left wing, thus I’ve nicknamed her Raggedy Anne. It’s nice spotting her so easily and knowing it is the same bird you see on a regular basis.

Another highlight so far has been the fabulous sightings of water voles over the past few weeks. A pair have decided to make a burrow along the Fen Hide trail close to the visitor centre conveniently opposite some benches. Here they swim and look for food less than a metre away with great views up close, I was impressed with how large they are. They are definitely up there in my top ten favourite animals with their furry, plump bodies and adorable little faces.

One of my current projects is monitoring the avocet that are nesting and getting a count of the highest number of nests. I could stand and watch them for hours, they are fiercely protective and will stand up to birds triple their size, even greylag geese! We have had a good number of nests so far with 26 being my highest count to date. Four not so clever avocets have decided to build their nests on a tiny island in the tidal pool, on the day of the Spring tides I stopped by expecting the islands to be covered, however the avocet were lucky this time and the water didn’t quite reach their nests.

I hope you enjoyed reading a little about what I’ve been up to at Titchwell since I began. My next blog should be all about ringing at Titchwell so keep a look out for it over the next week.

Georgie Scott, Conservation Intern

Weekly wildlife roundup - Shock horror, a nice bank holiday!

Paul Eele — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:48:35 GMT

With a decent weather forecast, bird watchers were out in force along the Norfolk coast this weekend and they turned up a nice selection of birds. With the wind in the south there was a nice arrival of migrants including a wood sandpiper photographed on Patsy’s reedbed, male whinchats on the grazing meadow and near the beach boardwalk, 2 red kites west on Sunday and 2 hobbies hunting martins over the reedbed on Saturday afternoon.

Despite it now being early May, there is still a winter element to the daily bird sightings. There are still a couple of bramblings around the feeders, a short eared owl over the saltmarsh on the 2^nd and 2 drake long tailed ducks offshore all week.

The nicer weather has also started to bring out the insects. Brimstone, orange tip, green veined white and peacock butterflies have all been on the wing while the first large red damselflies have been seen on the dragonfly pool.

Also around recently...

Garganey – drake on Patsy’s reedbed (7^th)

Little tern – 1^st birds of the spring present on the reserve from the 2^nd

Mediterranean gull – 3, including 2 summer plumage adults, on the fresh marsh (5^th)

Ring ouzel – male along East Trail on 2^nd

Grasshopper warbler – single male singing in the reedbed and from the brambles on the grazing meadow during the week

Don't fence me in!!

Paul Eele — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:24:12 GMT

It’s that time of year again. We’re fencing in the ringed plovers. Well, it’s for their own good you know!

Every year around April we fence off favoured nesting areas of Ringed plovers and other ground-nesting birds such as Oystercatcher along the beach at our Titchwell and Snettisham reserves.This is to minimise disturbance particularly during the incubation period as the eggs will chill if the parents are off the nest too long. The cordon will also prevent accidental trampling of the eggs as they are difficult to see being beautifully camouflaged against the sand and pebbles of the beach.

Breeding populations of ringed plover suffered significantly during the 20^th century as seaside recreation became increasingly popular. The adoption of inland sites such as reservoirs and gravel pits as breeding areas has in part compensated the bird however its numbers are continuing to decline.

If you visiting our reserves at Titchwell and Snettisham please help us to protect these birds by keeping out of the cordoned off areas and by keeping your dogs on a lead.

Neil Lincoln, Reserve Assistant

Ray's History - No 8 1979

Pernille Egeberg — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:04:51 GMT

For me 1979 was the year that Titchwell started to turn from a construction site into a fine reserve. With a booming bittern on site, the newly created lagoon plus the southern reedbed becoming totally freshwater habitats and the construction of a visitor centre near the car park we certainly got a little taste of what was to come.

Paul Holness, who is still a regular visitor here, came as a volunteer in 1980. He was lucky to be here when two male and three female marsh harriers settled down to breed, to see five of these fine birds displaying over our reeds was pretty special. Nowadays, of course, we see them every day of the year, but they are still a great sight.

Paul still enjoys his harriers, but I'm not sure he's only here for his toasted teacakes! He couldn't have got them when the visitor centre first opened in June that year, that joy was years on down the line.

Newcomers reading this must imagine no shop and no servery. What we had was a small seating area which was open at one end, an indoor display devoted to conservation issues and the making of Titchwell Marsh and a tiny hatch from which we handed out leaflets and reserve information. Manning the centre was a one person job, for a season this was one of the first voluntary jobs I had at Titchwell Marsh. For an afternoon each week I welcomed our few visitors, it was not very arduous.

On July 7th I received a phone call from Norman Sills, "If you can Ray get down to the Little Tern hide, there's an adult gull-billed tern in front of it. If you're quick you should beat the crowd". Talk about burnt rubber, I think I was there before I'd started out! This species normally gets recorded as a fly-by, so the prospect of seeing one close up on the ground was mouth watering. The bird didn't disappoint in any way.

Here was a pale grey-backed tern with a black crown and nape, thick black bill and shallow forked tail. It was very smart, but it's behaviour was not at all tern-like, it spent it's whole time trying to predate the little tern colony. I had beaten the crowd but when I left it was like being in the middle of a rugby scrum, if I'd known the bird was going to stay until the 26th I'd have been a little more laid back about it.

This was my first Titchwell twitch.

Ray

Ray's Rambles - Little and Large

Pernille Egeberg — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:43:18 GMT

April has been a crazy month, we've had a bit of everything. Winter birds such as bramblings and redwings have stayed on while some summer visitors such as the swifts have arrived a bit earlier than usual The sprlng flowers have been very late, many like the lesser celandines and kingcups have only just started flowering as you will see on a walk towards the fen hide.

If you stop at the dragonfly pool make sure you have your camera ready, because the water voles have been a photographers dream for the last couple of weeks. At times they have been only a few centimetres from the walkway and one of them tries to climb a small willow and usually falls off into the water. From there head on to the end of the boardwalk where it joins the concrete tank track. On your left is a low flower bank where there are several red-deadnettle and hairy bittercress plants to be seen, amongst them are some tiny early forget-me nots and a few little white crucifers with notched petals. This is whitlow grass and is a new species to add to the Ray's Rambles list.

Having had a look at the pair of red-crested pochard on the new pool you will probably walk round the meadow trail to get to the west bank. As you start the meadow trail have a look at the willows on your right. Low down on one of the branches you can see a few dark reddish-brown bracket fungi, they appear to be leaving a red stain on the tree. These are beefsteak fungi and are another new species for me.

There have been several occasions during the last three years when we have been told that a scarce bird is heading our way. Unless it is a sea-bird your best chance of seeing it is to wait on the west bank. Last week-end a party of seven common cranes were seen flying west along the coast, we heard they were getting closer and eventually they were spotted way out to the east. We could see them circling for several minutes and then they headed off towards Lincolnshire. It was a good job that cranes are such large birds otherwise I would not have been able to add them to my list which now stands at 1158.

This week we are starting our moth mornings so hopefully I'll see one or two new species then. We are waiting for one large plant that we are not certain about to flower and trying to get a positive identification of a very big sponge-like fungi I found growing near the visitor centre. May of course is an excellent month for some rarity to turn up, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ray

Spring has finally sprung

Paul Eele — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:11:27 GMT

After what seems like such a long winter it has been great this last week to see a real arrival of summer migrants. At this time of year the most obvious are the warblers and the hirundines (swallows and martins) As soon at the wind moved into the south there were large numbers of swallows, house and sand martins feeding up on insects over the reedbed and fresh marsh and in the last couple of days the swifts have been passing through. The scrub woodland around the visitor centre is now alive with the songs of chiffchaff, blackcap and willow warbler along with the resident blackbirds and song thrushes.

The survey season is now in full swing if a little slow. Bearded tits have been active but we are yet to locate any nests and we are still to hear any booming bitterns. The marsh harriers are now back and there are at least 4 pairs around the reserve. Avocet numbers are finally on the increase and we found 15 active nests on the fresh marsh and 5 on the tidal pool this morning.

Last Saturday morning I carried out the first Common Bird Census (CBC) of the reedbed. We don’t have time to survey it every year so complete the task once every 5 years to give us an idea of numbers. Sedge warblers were most evident with 30 singing males compared to 4 reed warblers although they are a little later in arriving and I am sure their numbers will have increased by next time. At least 6 Cetti’s warbler territories were located along with 4 reed bunting and a single grasshopper warbler.

Red crested pochard – now 3 birds on the reserve. A pair have joined the ‘resident’ female

Hen harrier – late ringtail hunting over the saltmarsh (24^th)

Red kite – single records on 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd probably refer to the same bird

Hobby – 1^st of the year on 23rd

Common crane – group of 7 over the east end of the reserve (20^th) then flew north. The group had been tracked along the Norfolk coast all morning and were seen in Lincolnshire in the afternoon. 6 birds the next day in the NE could have been the same birds? A single flew west over the reserve at 11:45 also on the 20^th

Yellow legged gull – 1 on fresh marsh (22^nd)

Spotted redshank – 3 on the fresh marsh including one in full summer plumage

Little ringed plover – 4 on fresh marsh (24^th)

Cuckoo – 1^st on the year (20^th)

Whinchat – male on saltmarsh near beach boardwalk on 19^th

Brambling – 2 late winter birds still present on bird feeders

Rays History No 7 1979

Pernille Egeberg — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:05:53 GMT

How Titchwell survived the 1978 storm I shall never know. The north-facing dunes had been badly knocked about but somehow only two breaches had been made in the new banks, I can only think that the tidal surge was basically north to south and therefore running along the line of the bank rather than battering into it. Norman Sills often told me a little of the problems they had, such as when one of the large pieces of machinery, a dragline, that had been brought in to do the repairs, slid off it's base boards into the thick mud. While stuck, there was a big tide which flooded the engine, so there was no chance of the machine digging itself out. But by the end of the year the bank had been completed and the basic design of the reserve as we know it today was in place.

It was all very well setting up a good bird habitat, but what had to be provided for RSPB members and the public in general? A car park and visitor centre were planned in a smallish field close to the main coast road. For visitors now it must be difficult to imagine standing where the servery is and be able to look straight down to where the toilets are. The car park was quite quickly constructed and two plantations of quick-growing trees such as willow, alder, pine and hawthorn plus some scrub species were planted. In those early days the footpath from the car park ran straight from the toilet block to the visitor centre, then several years later when the trees had grown, this path had to be abandoned for safety reasons. Our visitors could not be seen by drivers as they entered the car park, sooner or there would have been an accident.

I saw my first marsh harrier at Titchwell in 1966, but it was 1971 before I got my second - at that time of course they were really rare in Britain. During the rest of the 1970's they became regular passage migrants, and our most important breeding birds were little terns and bearded tits. Then in 1979 a booming bittern took up residence in the reedbed close to Titchwell church. Many more people claimed to have heard this bird than actually did so, the cows on Borthwick's marsh just to the east of the reserve and the thumping noises from the distant bombing and gunnery ranges in Lincolnshire sent many people home happy!

Ray

Ray's History

Pernille Egeberg — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:17:24 GMT

No. 6

1978

It has been very interesting re-reading Norman's "Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk. The First Ten Years". In it he implied he'd had a ' what am I doing here' moment soon after he taken up the job and that the day after day repetitive work shifting tons and tons of clay to make the new sea-walls was both physically and mentally draining. Outwardly he showed none of this, on the odd occasions I met him during these early years he came over as a confident man who was enjoying what he was doing. On seeing his creations here and at Lakenheath he must have been both.

Across Titchwell saltmarsh I could see the new banks taking shape and then on January 11th 1978 potential disaster struck. A near gale force north wind was right behind a naturally high tide. Living on Brancaster beach just a few hundred yards from the reserve's eastern boundary, my wife, Maureen, and I had a rather too close view of what happened that evening. Our back windows faced along the dunes, straight towards the little tern hide. Two hours before high tide was due the sea was already up to the edge of the dunes and we were getting worried, so we phoned the coastguards who said that we were safe.

Twenty minutes later they phoned to say get out, unfortunately it was too late, Brancaster beach road was already flooded. Luckily our children were playing with some friends in the village, but the young couple who lived in the golf clubhouse were not so fortunate, they had two much younger children and their mother was clearly terrified. The wind had now increased to severe gale, the couple pleaded with me to walk them out across the grazing marshes to safety and much against my better judgement I agreed to do so. We could hardly stand up as we started out, but it was a little better when we dropped below the level of the dunes.

I was carrying one child, Charlie carried the other and Maureen was in charge of the space-beam torch, two hundred yards away from the dunes we were still being soaked by sea spray. We had almost reached the far side of the marsh when the seabank collapsed. In very quick time Maureen was up to her chest in icy water and the last part of our escape was blocked firstly by a fallen tree and then by an electric cable that had come down. Some friends from Thornham had arrived to collect us, but when they saw the bank collapse, they really thought we'd drowned. They left one of their cars along the road just in case we'd got through, when we reached it the flood was up to the bottom of the of the windscreen. When we got to our friend's house in Brancaster, she opened her door to two half drowned shivering rats that were pouring seawater out of their boots on to the pavement. She just burst out laughing, it was the best thing she could have done. That night the wind had gusted to 93 mph and after that, what were we going to find in the morning?

I could not get down the beach road, it was blocked with sand and debris, the seawall was also a non-starter because half of wasn't there any more. My only choice left was gipsy lane, it was quite like stepping into a new world. The grazing marsh to my right was one huge lake, all the way along the dunes from the clubhouse to Titchwell creek I could now see the sea through numerous gaps, what dunes that were left were now much thinner, yards of sand had just disappeared. When I got home I found that we had been flooded, our floors were strewn with sand, small dead crabs and seaweed. I could not imagine what havoc the storm had caused to Titchwell's new sea defences, but having experienced that night I really do appreciate why all of our recent sea defence work had to be done.

Ray

Ray's History No. 5 1973

Pernille Egeberg — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:41:11 GMT

No 5.

1973

When Mick Ramsay found the Montagu's harriers it naturally caused quite a stir and wheels started to turn. The Norfolk Ornithologists Association secured an agreement with the land owner to protect the habitat and during the 1971/2 breeding seasons the RSPB paid local bird-watcher Jack Reynolds to look after the harrier nests. I remember Jack as a very knowledgeable, quiet, studious man. He knew the area really well because he had ringed thousands of birds in the old NOA Dodman's Farm Reserve nearby.

In February 1973 the RSPB purchased the land for £53,000 and in March Norman Sills was appointed as our first warden. It was on the east bank later that year when I met him for the first time, it could well have been when the reserve's first avocet turned up. In 1973 an avocet was a real star bird, I went along the bank 4 evenings on the trot to see this bird feeding in the creek. How things change, here in march 2013 I was quite disappointed to find only 42 avocets on our lagoons.

Although my views of Titchwell at this stage were still all on the eastern side I could see work going on in the distance. The first thing that really affected me was the completion of the little tern hide overlooking the shingle ridge just to the west of Titchwell creek in 1974. At low tide I could walk to the hide from home in 15 minutes so I still had no need to go down the west bank. The small colony of little terns that had been breeding just to the east of the creek failed at this time through human disturbance and I imagine they joined the more peaceful site in front of the new hide.

One late afternoon early in the winter of 1975 I had a most unusual sighting of an escapee Chilean flamingo being repeated dive-bombed by an immaculate male hen harrier. The latter actually briefly grabbed hold of the flamingo's neck. I thought that this was being a bit over ambitious, but perhaps bright pink was the only colour he could see in the gathering gloom.

At the time I didn't realise how much Norman must have enjoyed these early years, subsequently most of us realised that he was never happier than when he was up to his ears in stinking mud, had a couple of diggers and a real problem to solve.

Ray