Bit of a jammy afternoon. While walking around the Meadow Trail I had a fly-over rook (128). Not exactly a rare bird but a surpringly hard species to catch up with at Titchwell. We get loads of crows breeding in the area and moving west in the spring and good numbers of jackdaw but rook is another matter. I radioed the office but it had gone over before the others could get out. We also had a very early sedge warbler (129) singing near the Island Hide briefly mid-afternoon. Not sure on when we had the 1st bird last year but in 2007 I didn't record one until April 12th! It does seem that several species are a bit early - sand martin and swallow have both bee at least 10 days earlier this year.

A quick stop at Choseley drying barns on the way home produced 52 corn bunting and 22 yellowhammer feeding on spilt grain on the concrete pad.

A reasonable mornings ringing, despite a slight frost, included the first chiffchaff and blackcap for the year in a total of 19 new and 35 re-traps. Also around the site included a probable firecrest singing briefly (it wouldn't come to a tape), grey wagtail, 2 tawny owls and a green woodpecker.

Bit of a raptor movement yesterday wth 5 buzzard and 2 sparrowhawk west over the garden. Found a blackbird nest in the garden and the robins are now incubating.

Two more species added today taking the total to 127. Swallow (126) west this evening with 6 sand martins and a tawny owl (127) calling from Willow Wood while we were listening for bitterns. One bird 'grunting' again this evening for an hour.

A new moth species for me in the work trap this morning was this cracking oak beauty.

Bit of a red letter day today with 3 yearticks and my 250th species for Titchwell.

Started off well with a drake garganey (123) on the grazing marsh which later moved onto the fresh marsh and the first 'grunting' bittern of the season was on the edge of the grazing marsh. Then came the radio message from Dave, '6 cranes heading west along the ridge', the office emptied and we ran up to the main road to see the six birds slowly drifting west along the main road. They are always awesome birds to see(124). The best was still to come...

While out on a guided walk, Dave radioed to see if I had looked at my pager. I had left it in the office so didn't know what was heading our way. 'Alpine swift heading west from Holkham' was his reply. Having missed two a couple of years ago I was hoping that it would contuine towards us. At about 15:20, on our way back, I picked up the bird distantly over the saltmarsh towards Gypsy Lane heading our way. The bird flew directly towards us over the reedbed and right overhead at about 30ft before disapearing on to Holme (125). I managed to contact the NOA who had the bird continue west.
A fantastic bird to make the 250 landmark.

Photographers are always moaning that they get a bad press when the are accused (rightly or wrongly) of flushing birds or being where they are not meant to be and this bloke hasn't helped their cause. Unfortunatly I was not close enough to say anything but he climbed over a fence to get closer to a perched barn owl. He didn't get that close before he flushed it - what a tw*t!! Rant over


Last day of my holiday so decided to go out to Gun Hill to look for migrants. Got off to a promising start with 3 chiffchaffs in the hedges near the road along with a late fieldfare. The grazing marsh was alive with displaying lapwing, redshank and skylarks and there were 6 ringed plover feeding on the pools. Two male wheatear and a fly through sand martin were the only other migrants and the wind picked up from the south. A quick look at the sea produced 5 common scoter, single gannet and a horbour porpoise close inshore.


Thought I would try for some shelter in Holkham Park but apart several singing nuthatch and a nice female green woodpecker it was quiet.



Holkham church and hall

A cracking spring morning that didn't quite meet up to its promise.
WeBS count this morning so had to spend a few hours on the reserve. Started off well with a brambling (122) in the trees around the picnic area. The lagoons are very quiet now most of the wildfowl have moved off. Loads of avocets, water pipit and aythya hybrid still about. The news of 2 cranes moving west along the coast encouraged me to sit by the fresh marsh but once they had got to Morston they decided to turn around and go back east - doh!
28 velvet scoter with 1900 common was probably the highest for a number of years.

Robins in the garden have now got 3 eggs

Rain ended today's ringing session early but it was still a decent morning. Highlights were a re-trapped female nuthatch (top birds in the hand) and 3 new goldfinches. Around the site were the first singing chiffchaffs (2), 3 tawny owls, adult med gull and a barn owl.