A Winters Day At Titchwell Marsh And Holkam 28/12/18

Having known I would be heading on a birding trip further afield during the Christmas holidays, I took a while to choose where I would go. However, I eventually settled with Titchwell in the hope of some seabirds (as this is a big gap in my birding knowledge) and Holkam to try and see some Shorelark or Snow Bunting. 

So after a 6 o'clock start and a 2 and a half hour drive, we arrived at Titchwell for the 'Easy Birding' Walk. A brief glance at the feeders outside the centre yielded all of the usual suspects (Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Long-tailed tit) as well as a year tick in the form of a Greenfinch. The fact that I hadn't seen one yet this year was shocking on my part, especially since they used to frequent my garden feeders, however it's also a worrying sign that these birds are on the decline. 

Anyway, we began the walk led by our excellent guide Richard who took us down the Fen trail. On the way to the viewpoint, we observed more Long-tailed tits as well as a few Goldcrests and a small flock of Redwing that flew past. A male Reed Bunting also made a brief appearance before diving back down into the undergrowth. On arrival at the viewpoint, we watched up to 3 Marsh Harriers hunting over the reeds at the same time (this was to be a theme throughout most of the walk). Small numbers of Teal, Mallard and Gadwall also floated in view with a distant Kestrel watching on. As we headed back through the trail, we heard the call of a Cetti's Warbler as well as the distant drumming of a Great Spotted Woodpecker before we headed to the West Bank path towards the beach.

With various marshes on each side of us, the path provided some nice birds. To the left of us was the Thornham grazing marsh, which added a few waders to the day's list including: Curlew, Redshank and a lifer in the form of a Grey Plover. As well as this, a stand of Golden Plover took flight on the right hand side of me thus providing another lifer. As we ventured down the path, Egyptian, Greylag and Pink footed Geese all flew over our heads, and the Freshwater marsh to the right of us was buzzing with Brent Geese (another lifer) as well as a few Avocets. Getting closer to the beach, Richard pointed out a few flyover Skylarks and Meadow Pipits as well as a pair of distant Pintail on the volunteer marsh.

As we reached the beach, the adrenaline really started to kick in, as this was my first time seawatching, meaning there was the potential to get a whole abundance of lifers. It didn't disappoint! We set up our scopes and began scanning; immediately Richard picked up a pair of distant grebe which were disappointingly only Great Crested. However, very quickly the group picked up some stunning Long Tailed Ducks (yet another lifer) which were more than compensation for the previous disappointment of the Great Crested Grebes. However, this disappointment was very short lived when I picked up 3 grebes in my scope. This time I had hit the jackpot; 2 Slavonian grebes and a Red-necked grebe! I could hardly contain my excitement in finding and seeing these two lifers. But we were't done just yet, as I also discovered a raft of 17+ Common Scoter on the horizon, as well as a pair of Red-Breasted Mergansers (Both lifers) . Furthermore, Richard picked up on a fairly close female Eider - another addition to my life list - and pointed out more lifers in the form of Turnstone and Bar Tailed Godwit. A couple of Birders behind us also spotted a Black Throated Diver,  but sadly it was too elusive for me to see it.

Exhausted from the excitement of so many lifers, me and the group headed back down the path. Due to the lack of time we had because of the winter sunlight, me and my Dad were just about to peel off  the group to head to Holkam, when a cry of "Hen Harrier" came from our Guide. This was a lovely end to our Titchwell visit as it's only the second Hen Harrier I've witnessed and is just such a majestic bird. After watching it head into the distance, we peeled off the group and headed back to the car to head towards Holkam.

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Arriving at Holkam, we parked at St Lady Anne's drive in a rush due to the hastily diminishing light. Making our way towards the beach we witnessed masses of Pink footed and Greylag geese as well as a ridiculously close Brent Goose. On arrival at the beach, a fruitless scan of the salt marsh (For Shorelark) meant it was time for me to do some more seawatching. An even larger raft of Common Scoter greeted my scope as soon as I set it up. As well as this, after a lengthy scan of the sea, I was rewarded for my patience when a diver briefly popped into the scope. Unfortunately, a combination of it's elusiveness and my rubbish Diver ID skills meant that I was unable to identify the bird, however I did manage to 'phonescope' a few quick record shots. Luckily, these were good enough for nine different people to ID it as a Great Northern Diver! Yet another lifer and my highlight of the day and compensation for missing the Black Throated Diver earlier. 

  

Eventually, I got fed up of the strong winds blowing in my face so decided to head back to the salt marsh in search of Shorelark. A lone yet tame Redshank stood near the marshes and I did spot a flock of around 20 brownish birds fly into the air and land in the marsh which could have been Shorelark but sadly I didn't manage to ID them due to the poor light. Finally, we headed back to the car, tired but buzzing about the Diver and the total of 13 lifers that I managed to accumulate during the day. Phenomenal!

I would just like to say a quick thank you to my Dad for driving the 5 hour (in total) journey, our guide Richard for pointing out many lifers that I wouldn't have been able to ID on my own, and finally all my fellow birders on twitter for Identifying the Great Northern Diver!