Bonus Bittern

We headed up the A11 this morning stopping to dip Golden Pheasant again on the way up to Sculthorpe Moor. At Sculthorpe we located the Waxwing at the very top of a tree just behind the visitor centre. It dropped to feed on a couple of occasions but spent seconds on the berries before returning to the safety of the trees.

The solitary Waxwing at Sculthorpe Moor

A walk around the reserve gave great views of upto ten Bullfinch and three Brambling to add another two year ticks. Marsh Tit, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch the other stars of our visit.

Bullfinch

Feeders were buzzing with Bullfinch

Our first Brambling of the year

From Sculthorpe we moved on to Titchwell where we failed to find the Woodcock that was supposed to be "showing well" but did pick up our first Chiffchaff of the year and a real bonus with a Bittern feeding along the close edge of the reeds on the walk up to Island hide.

Bittern

Bittern

Bittern

We had another search for the Woodcock which ended in disappointment before starting the journey home dropping in to Cockley Cley for another go at the Willow Tits and this time with the feeding station set up we had better luck enjoying a large tit flock taking advantage of the basket covered seed. The tits included Willow, Marsh, Coal, Great and Blue and ID was made a little easier due to how vocal they all were with the Willows really performing well for us.

The Cockley Cley feeding station with thanks to Ashley for his work here.

Year list now 163