21/04/2019 Norfolk Spring Migration Tour Day2/3 Purple Heron at last!

Sunday 21 April 2019: Easter Sunday
Snettisham Country Park then RSPB Titchwell

 

The plan was to visit Snettisham Country Park to look for evidence of visible migration (VIZMIG) and then move on to RSPB Titchwell in the afternoon.  It was warmer today, reaching 23C, but there was very little wind.  Things didn't go quite to plan and there were a couple of surprises.

 

• The day got off to a cracking start when we saw a fabulous Little Owl peeking over the ledge of a gable end window of one of the barns belonging to the Holkham Estate on the A149

courtesy of Marcus Nash

• VIZMIG didn't really happen - mainly due to the lack of wind. 

 

•  I was also looking forward to seeing lots of Grasshopper Warblers as in previous years.  Unfortunately things have taken a change for the worse on this site  The landlords, in trying to reduce the fire risk, have dug up at least 5 territories formerly occupied by the Grasshopper Warblers - a catastrophic move with regard to birding in the area.  Nevertheless, birders who we met assured us the species was still present and had been seen earlier today in a couple of places.  We heard but did not see any on our morning visit - what a shame!

 

• We did however see lots of Wheatears and Sedge Warblers and I even managed to hear my first Reed Warbler of the year.  We managed to see at least 5 Yellow Wagtails among the cattle but try as we did we could not see the blue headed variety that had been seen earlier.

 

• As a consolation we saw a cracking Ring Ouzel in the field on the opposite side of the road to the car park.

 

courtesy of Marcus Nash

 

• Titchwell produced the usual variety of species.  We were looking for a Whinchat that had been reported early morning but we were unsuccessful but we did get an unexpected bonus when the Warden came over and pointed us towards a Spotted Flycatcher - well done and much appreciated.

 

courtesy of Marcus Nash



 

Here are a number of additions to my year list for the Titchwell site:-

• Common Tern on the sea
• Little Ringed Plover on the Freshwater Marsh
• Red-crested Pochard on the Freshwater Marsh
• Reed Warbler on the Freshwater Marsh
• Sandwich Tern on the Freshwater Marsh

 

 

• Marcus took us back to Burnham Norton on the way home to twitch the Purple Heron - a first year bird which should be in the Mediterranean.  We finally enjoyed spectacular views of this bird - a "lifer" for me - my 4th of the year!

 

courtesy of Marcus Nash



 

Another great day - despite the crowds we managed to get in some excellent birding.