News from Titchwell – Summer/Autumn 2011 – Paul Eele

Coastal Change Project complete

While I sit here at my desk the last of the diggers are leaving, and I can’t believe the Coastal Project is finally over.

Work started in early August with the completion of the Parrinder bank. While we still had diggers around the reserve we decided to carry out some experimental works to help our declining breeding shorebirds. Over the last five years numbers of breeding little tern and ringed plovers have been on a downward spiral, with only two pairs of ringed plover this year and no little terns breeding at all since 2005. Although some of this decline is down to human disturbance, most of it is a result of habitat loss on the beach. Both species prefer to nest in beach shingle and these areas are now buried by sand. To help address this change, we have created two shingle areas on top of the new Parrinder bank and one on the new fresh marsh island, although it will be next spring before we know if they are successful.

It was then on to the most exciting part of the project — the breach. It didn’t take long to complete and by the end of the day we had a 40m-hole in the wall with water coming through! Since completion we have had some monster tides that have filled the lagoon and flooded all the islands. Although it is still early days it is interesting to see how the habitat has already changed: much of the “freshwater” vegetation has been killed off by the increased salinity and a large amount of seed has been deposited from the saltmarsh. This has provided a fantastic food source for the wintering wildfowl, with 500 teal and 100 wigeon already recorded by late October.

Once these major jobs had been completed, it was time to slowly move back towards the car park. The most obvious of these next tasks is the new fresh marsh sluice (the large pale box) on the east bank. This new sluice is bigger than the old one, and will allow us to manage the water levels more dynamically and respond to changing bird spectacles. If there is a movement of waders in the spring, we can expose areas of mud for feeding while not compromising the breeding species. The sea wall in the south-east corner was upgraded and then it was on to the new access paths. There will be more to come about these in the next edition, but if you have a go at the caption competition (in August’s The Harnser) you may be lucky and win a speak preview with me!

Birds, birds and other stuff

Despite constant westerly winds throughout the summer and autumn (east is best for us here), it has been a surprisingly good period for birds.
Things were kicked off with a singing icterine warbler outside the visitor centre for an afternoon in early July, quickly followed by a buff-breasted sandpiper (July 18-20) that showed as close as five metres from the Parrinder hide at times. Ideal water levels on the fresh marsh in July produced excellent conditions for passage waders. Peak counts of 300 dunlin, 22 curlew sandpiper, four little stint and two Temminck’s stints were recorded.
August was an unusually quiet month, especially for waders, and this was not helped by the weather being dominated by westerly gales. Having said that, a buff-breasted sandpiper (possibly from July) put in a brief two-day appearance and two juvenile Temminck’s stints were present on the 6th.
September produced “one of those days” on the 10th. Following reports of a “baby” bittern alongside the main path (6th), the bird was finally identified as a juvenile little bittern on the 9th. Initially it didn’t show well, but by the weekend of the 10-11th it could be seen out in the open catching small fish on the edge of the reeds. With extra eyes about the reserve, the 10th also produced a cattle egret (9-13th) and the returning buff-breasted sandpiper from August.

All of the sightings above would have normally got top billing if it hadn’t have been for the spectacle that occurred on October 13. Light easterly winds had brought in a few migrants along the coast, including a yellow-browed warbler on the Meadow Trail, which encouraged our very own Dave Hawkins to walk up to Thornham Point. Very few birds were present, so he headed back. Just before he arrived at the beach platform a short-eared owl flew in off the sea. Dave decided to stop and watch, and over the next three hours saw an amazing 46 birds arrive. All of these birds were probably of Scandinavian origin and were heading to the UK for the winter. A bit of research has found that this is the largest single movement recorded in Norfolk, and probably in the UK!

Non-avian highlights came in the form of an adult alder sawfly (Cimbex conatus) found in the picnic area and a purple hairstreak outside the visitor centre after a thunderstorm, while a new species of dock (Rumex maritimus x crispus,if you are interested) for Norfolkwas found on the edge of the fresh marsh in July.

Humans and suchlike

Our family area started in late July for its summer run and proved as popular as ever. Over the six week period we engaged with more than 1,600 adults and 1,200 children, recruited 45 new members and made over £1,200 towards the Coastal Change Project.
Welsh folk-singer Kate Doubleday visited the reserve as part of her Hide Away tour in July.

With the Coastal Change Project close to completion we were joined by Autumnwatch presenter Chris Packham to help with the celebration. Chris gave an excellent speech and had the honour of cutting the ribbon to formally open the hide. Chris also gave his time to show a lucky few some of the reserve’s wildlife on a series of guided walks, and even had time to cut a very special cake made by one of our regular visitors. The cake depicted the reserve from the air and included the hides, breach, ditches, islands and even some of the staff cars in the carpark! It was very tasty and didn’t last long!

The end of September heralded the annual staff migration season. After spending a year with us, Rowena headed off to pastures new, and we were joined by Natalie Hands and Zoe Channon as our winter volunteers.