A Day at Titchwell

19th April 2014

After the successful day at Hunstanton Cliffs photographing the Fulmars, spending the next day at Titchwell was a must. Arriving at about 10.30am I took one of the last places left in the car park, and headed straight to the first hide. As would be expected, the water levels were high at this time of year so there was no exposed mud and no waders right in front of the hide. That is apart from Avocets. Avocets feed by sifting and are therefore just at home walking around in the shallows or swimming and up-ending to sift the water. Unfortunately, this latter behaviour makes them very difficult to photograph as they spend most of their time with their heads under the water.

However, with a little patience it is possible to get some shots when they are resting, or when for those few precious moments they have got their head above water.

Now on to a rather unusually deserted beach, deserted by people that is. In fact the probable reason that it was deserted by people was that it was also deserted by birds. However, as the tide continued to recede there were signs of movement with a few small flocks of waders appearing. First up were the Oystercatchers which seem to spend much of their time commuting to and fro from feeding and roosting areas. Also a few Sanderlings appeared hurrying around at the water's edge as though time was running out. This one was still in its winter plumage.

But the spectacle of the day was the arrival of a sizeable flock of Bar-tailed Godwits which flew in and started to feed quite close to where I was standing. Just one or two of the birds were now in their stunning orange full breeding plumage and stood out from the rest of the crowd as they were illuminated by the sun.

With a little patience it was possible to get quite close to the flock allowing some nice group shots to be taken, with a Knot interloper being evident in the last photo.