Titchfield Haven NNR

Titchfield Haven NNR ~ 31st October 2012 ~

Hi everyone, apologies for not posting for such a long time but I hope you enjoy my following post about my trip to Titchfield Haven NNR, Hampshire.

On 31st October I managed to persuade my mum to take me to Titchfield Haven as neither of us had ever been there before. The weather forecast looked okay for the day but much to our disappointment, no sooner had we arrived than the heavens opened; not a very good start to the day! We went straight to the visitor center to buy entry tickets and on the way spotted 10 Redshank and many more Turnstone, unfortunately I didn't manage to get any shots of either.

We got to the visitor center purchased our tickets and started our journey out into the pouring rain. We decided to go to a few of the hides first and take it from there. So we headed round, walking the 5 minutes to the first hide with great anticipation! From here we saw Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Redshank, Tufted Duck, Teal, Shoveler, a Kingfisher and a Grey Heron.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinera)

Following this we walked round to the second hide where we were greeted with close views of yet more Teal, two Little Egrets and yet another Grey Heron.

We carried on to the next two hides and saw very little so headed back, visiting each hide once more but with no new birds.

Instead of walking round to the next few hides on the other side of the reserve we decided to walk back to the coffee shop to sit down and warm up.

However, as we walked back, I noticed a large group of waders congregating at the waters edge so I had a quick scan through the group in hope of anything unusual. To my surprise I spotted a Sanderling among the Turnstone group. As I had previously only ever seen Sanderling very distantly I decided to try and get a decent photo of it. After much frustration and revising my tactics several time, I managed to get in the right position and this is the result:

Sanderling (Calidris alba)

I also noticed a Knot, a species I had never seen before, and just as I was leaving I noticed an odd looking wader which I later identified as a Grey plover, another lifer! So, on the whole it wasn't a bad day, apart from the weather, but that's the Great British weather for you eh?! Here are a few more shots from my great day at Titchfield, thank you all for reading and any comment are very welcome.