02 January 2010 continued
The Titchwell car park was full but we did manage to find a spot in the overflow car park. Checking the sightings list several people had seen Water Rail in the stream near the centre so my hopes were up again! Surprisingly, considering the winter weather, there were no Bramblings on either the new feeders or the regular feeding station. Again there were no Water Rails either (would this be like 2009 which was Water Rail free in the UK?) but a Marsh Harrier did catch our eye hunting over to the West as well as our first Little Egret of the year.
86.Marsh Harrier-------------------Titchwell----------------------England
87.Little Egret---------------------Titchwell----------------------England
We made our way into the new Island Hide where it was standing room only. But we did pick up five new year birds.
88.Shelduck-----------------------Titchwell----------------------England
89.Pintail--------------------------Titchwell----------------------England
90.Avocet-------------------------Titchwell----------------------England
91.Red Breasted Merganser---------Titchwell----------------------England
92.Yellow Legged Gull--------------Titchwell----------------------England
Leaving the relative warmth of the hide we checked out a pipit from the path (Photo 1) that we had spotted but couldn’t positively identify from the hide, resulting in my 93rd year bird.
93.Water Pipit---------------------Titchwell----------------------England
Parrinder Hide was no more and its place a new sea wall. Out on the beach (Photo 2) I reached my 100th tick of the year with a Knot
94.Common Scoter----------------Titchwell----------------------England
95.Sanderling---------------------Titchwell----------------------England
96.Bar Tailed Godwit--------------Titchwell----------------------England
97.Grey Plover--------------------Titchwell----------------------England
98.Linnet-------------------------Titchwell----------------------England
99.Dunlin-------------------------Titchwell----------------------England
100.Knot-------------------------Titchwell----------------------England
By 3:30 pm the night was drawing in so we made our way back to the car park, with one final look for Water Rail. Suddenly the sound of a squealing pig, just feet from where we stood stopped us in our tracks. Seconds later two Water Rails raced along the ditch, to say I was please was an understatement of the first degree!
101.Water Rail-------------------Titchwell----------------------England
On the way back to Manthorpe we checked out Wolferton but again dipped. After a wonderful fry up DAS set off home while I told Steve had to drop off a drawing DAS had done of a new throttle mechanism for my father’s racing car, at Kirkby Underwood, an ideal trip to look for owls! Steve ummed and ahhed about going but finally decided to. He was please he did as we picked up two Tawny Owls, one flashing in front of the car in Hanthorpe, another sitting in a tree on the edge of the road at Bulby. The side roads North of Bourne were absolutely treacherous, the route (Photo 3) taking twice the normal time.
102.Tawny Owl-----------------Hanthorpe----------------------England
My bird count was two down on this time last year, while 346 miles had been covered in two days! The 82 birds seen today are shown below in alphabetical order:-
Avocet, Bar Tailed Godwit, Bewick Swan, Black Headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Brent Goose,Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Feral Pigeon, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Partridge, Grey Plover, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Knot, Linnet, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Little Owl, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Marsh Tit, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Nuthatch,Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Pintail, Red Breasted Merganser, Red Legged Partridge, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Rook, Sanderling, Shelduck,Shoveler, Skylark, Snipe, Starling, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Teal, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Water Pipit, Water Rail, Whooper Swan, Wigeon, Woodcock, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellow Legged Gull.