We decided to forego the traditional seeing in the New Year for 2019* and had an early night instead so that we could get up to head north for New Year’s Day. By north I mean Norfolk and RSPBs Titchwell and Snettisham, specifically. Arrived at Titchwell at about 10am, lots of the usual garden birds on the feeders at the visitor centre, Water Rail in the ditch, Ring-tailed Hen Harrier along the west marsh and Long-tailed and Eider ducks not too far from the shore.
Apparently, there was a competition underway for someone to tick 100 birds on the reserve, the wardens got to about 72 different species, by the end of our visit we’d clocked a mere 54 or so different species and probably a couple more we simply didn’t recognise, in no particular order:
1. Hen Harrier “ringtailed” meaning plumage ambiguous, female or juv.
2. Bar-tailed Godwit
3. Black-tailed Godwit
4. Teal
5. Redshank
6. Oystercatcher
7. Cormorant
8. Grey Plover
9. Brent Goose
10. Greylag Goose
11. Mallard
12. Wigeon
13. Pochard
14. Shelduck
15. Blackbird
16. Chaffinch
17. Water Rail
18. Goldfinch
19. Greenfinch
20. Wren
21. Little Grebe
22. Blue Tit
23. Great Tit
24. Coal Tit
25. Long-tailed Tit
26. Robin
27. Starling
28. Marsh Harrier
29. Buzzard
30. Dunnock
31. Reed Bunting
32. Lesser Black-backed gull
33. Black-headed Gull
34. Sanderling
35. Long-tailed duck
36. Eider
37. Dunlin
38. Turnstone
39. Lapwing
40. Avocet
41. Curlew
42. Wood Pigeon
43. Knott
44. Stock Dove
45. Little Egret
46. Grey Heron
47. Tufted Duck
48. Ruff
49. Moorhen
50. Pheasant
51. Gadwall
52. White-throated Diver
53. Herring Gull
54. Magpie
Also so Stonechat at Snettisham later in the day having watched huge flocks of Golden Plover (1000s), Lapwing and Oystercatcher (100s) and 1000s of Knott doing their high-tide flocking.
