Friday and Day 2, todays plan was to head out to a new reserve, I hadn’t visited before, called, Sculthrope Moor Nature Reserve near Fakenham.
On entering the reserve your soon upon the first hide, called Dragonfly Hide, here I saw Dunnocks, Nuthatch, Siskin, Greenfinch, Stock Dove, Chaffinch, Long tailed Tit, Blue Tit, heard a Song Thrush and Little Grebe. Moved away from the Dragonfly hide and made my way to the Woodland Hide, where the first surprise of the day was a paie of Muntjac Deer, feeding around the bird feeders, one female and one male, I ended up taking a few photos. Birds here included Blackbird, Bullflinch, Robin, Blue and Long tailed Tit.
I made my way slowly onwards taking in the scenery of Scultrope, a very wooded reserve along with areas of fen, meadows and wetland areas, I was enjoying the place. I finally came across the Whiteley Hide, there are seven hides in total, this is the place to see Red Kites and it wasn’t long before one was spotted over the tree tops, along with the Kite was a Common Buzzard and Rooks. Down at the nearby feeders were Long tailed, Blue and Great Tit, Male Reed Buntings, Chaffinch, Coal and Marsh Tit.
After a while I moved on to the new Wetland Area and the hide there, but on the my walk there I came across a roosting Tawny Owl, which was a nice experience of seeing one of these in the day time, nearby was a calling Chiffchaff. So from the Wetland hide, Common Snipe was a nice addition to the day list, along with a Common Redshank.
Sculthorpe Moor is a great place, one I think I could gladly spend all day there, lovely big hides, good reception area, clean toilets, and friendly staff, definitely be visiting again, 31 species encountered.
Bird List ;- Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Coot, Dunnock, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Lapwing, Little Grebe, Long tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Tit, Nuthatch, Pheasant, Red Kite, Reed Bunting, Robin, Rook, Siskin, Snipe, Song Thrush, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Teal,
After Sculthrope I moved onto Heacham South Beach for the reported Slavonian Grebe, after about a 20min walk, thanks to another birder showing me the way and another birder on site we were soon onto the bird, it did give us the run around as it was moving up and down the river, I did manage a few distant photos of the bird.
After the Slavonian Grebe encounter it was then on to RSPB Titchwell were on arrival and just thru the hub, I had my first rain shower of the day, so I sat down at the visitor centre feeders watching Woodpigeon, and Dunnocks to pass the time away whilst the shower went thru.
After the rain I was onto and into the Island Hide where , Black headed Gulls, Shovelers, Avocets, Pochards, Mallards, Pintail, Marsh Harriers, Brent Geese, Mediterranean Gulls, Teal, and a few returning Sand Martins and Swallows could all be seen. Moving on then I soon stopped off at one of the seats along the pathway down to the beach which overlooks the reserve, from here I got to see ten Mediterranean Gulls in all, also Gadwall, Pied Wagtail, Avocets, Brent Geese, Shovelers and Greylag Geese.
On at the Parrinder Hide, ducked in here mainly to dodge another rain shower, bird highlights from here were a fine Male Pintail, three Turnstones, Redshank, and a single Ringed Plover. After the rain I headed down to the beach, stopping off firstly at the salt marsh to scope through some more birds, Redshanks, Oystercatchers, Grey Plovers and Curlews.
Finally down at the beach, I was greeted by a guy coming off saying “I had all the beach to myself, as there were no people and no birds to be seen”. Funny that as I found Red breasted Mergansers on the sea, on the beach were, but at a distance, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Sanderling, and Bar tailed Godwits.
Itt was now late and I was getting a bit cold, so I decided on heading back to the car park, seeing Little Egret and more Marsh Harriers and Cormorants on the way. 42 bird species seen at Titchwell, plus another Muntjac Deer at the visitor Centre.
Bird List :- Avocet, Bar tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Black tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Brent Goose, Buzzard, Cetti’s Warbler, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Dunlin, Dunnock, Gadwall, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Mediterranean Gull, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Pochard, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Robin, Sand Martin, Sanderling, Shelduck, Swallow, Teal, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren
Huddsbirder 