Leader: Chris Stone
Reporter: Keith Walker

Weather fine but cloudy. Temperature 18/19 C. Very gentle southerly breeze.
An ideal day for wandering around the reserve, but little likelihood of new migrants dropping in.
A dozen members turned up to our traditional Titchwell meeting, which was led with knowledgeable authority by Chris who is a volunteer at Titchwell, and we were fortunate that a further member and long standing Titchwell volunteer, Colin Fenn, joined us, so we had two experts who knew all the nooks and crannies to explore and where the usual bird suspects could be found.

Led and Reported by Ashley Saunders of Oriole Birding

Tuesday 14th– Heavy rain and light E winds, 15C

It was back to the North-east of England this week for a custom tour for Wensum Valley Birdwatching Society, and with east winds and rain for most of the day, we departed Norfolk rather wide-eyed at the prospect of a day’s birding tomorrow at Spurn. But, we had birds to see on the way too as we made a bee-line for Blacktoft Sands again and it’s long-staying White-tailed Plover. Little did we know that during our drive, a Bluethroat had been found here too and this was very exciting and welcome news when we arrived at the Visitor Centre (via the Tree Sparrows on the feeders)! Thinking the plover would be the easier of the two highlight birds to see, we opted to head straight to Xerox Hide where the Bluethroat had been seen twenty minutes previously, but arrived there to a hide full of people who’d not seen it nor knew exactly where it was. There were two shouts though of quick flight views of it over the reeds – this clearly wasn’t going to be easy! A great show of other birds here though included four Water Rails on view at one time, and they were pretty much constantly on show during our whole visit. Common Snipe, at least three Green Sandpipers, twenty Ruff and a lovely juv Spotted Redshank which flew in calling, were other highlights here. With no further sign of the Bluethroat though, we decided to take a walk east towards Townend Hide to see if the plover was about.