Titchwell

With the chance of adding the long staying little owl to my reserve list I decided to head to the reserve for a few hours this morning.

It probably wasn't much of a surprise that the carpark was already pretty busy when I arrived at 07:30 considering all the birds that have been about recently. The priority was the little owl so I headed straight for the East Trail area.

When I arrived at the screen it was pretty obvious that there were lots of birds on the move overhead. Most of the passage was of chaffinch but there were good numbers of woodpigeon, starling and siskin passing too. The light was pretty poor and the birds were moving on a broad front making it hard to get an accurate count. In the hour (08:00 - 09:00) I spent I recorded

Woodpigeon - 40
Swallow - 1
Mistle thrush - 2

Chaffinch - 137
Brambling - 2
Siskin - 69
Yellowhammer - 4
Redwing -  25
Goldfinch - 42
Reed bunting -  8
Dunnock - 2

Kestrel - 1
Coal tit - 3
Jay - 5
Song thrush - 2
Great tit - 4

With the large number of hawfinches on the move yesterday I was hoping that I might get at least one this morning but to get six was great. The first birds were a small group of 5 heading high west at 08:50 followed by a single at 09:05. The first birds were not calling and a bit of luck to pick them up but the single was 'ticking' nicely as it went over.

While trying to keep an eye of the birds passing to the north of where I was standing i jammed in on a bittern flight. I did manage to get a couple of distant records shots although only one of them is worthy (just) of publication

Three male crossbill west over the Meadow Trail was a nice distraction on the way to the fresh marsh as was the very active flocks of bearded tits calling in the reedbed.

The fresh marsh had a few waders still including a couple of little stints showing close to the path with the dunlin flock but other than that, not a great deal else so I decided to head back down the path and sit on a bench and see what else was moving overhead.

By now the bearded tits were performing well sitting in the tops of the reeds and flying about across the main path. They were not the easiest birds to photograph but I did manage to get a male in the reeds and one of a small group flying over.

As I was scanning out the east trying to pick up passerine flocks in the distance coming towards me I picked up a large bird slowing heading west along the ridge to the south of Brancaster ( a long way from where I was!) First thought was a heron and then I realised it was a crane so I called it out to a few people who were on the path. On scoping it I noticed that is was in really heavy primary moult and then I remembered that the escaped demoiselle crane that had been on the coast earlier in the week was showing heavy damage to its wings. Although I didn't see the bird any closer (it drifted over the ridge inland) I presume it was the same bird. I did have a mooch around the lanes on the way home but there was so sign on it.

Little owl still isn't on my Titchwell list but it was still a decent morning.