I spent the last weekend of January in Norfolk photographing the abundant bird-life that reside in the many marshes, shingle beaches and areas of farmland that make up this amazing part of England.
We drove across on Saturday and went straight to Titchwell Marsh which is renowned for it's many species of birds.
It's a relatively small reserve with a few hides looking over marshland but none of them situated in particularly good places so I didn't manage to get any decent photos of anything from them.
However the highlight of Titchwell is the shingle beach it backs onto. This is a large area which looks pretty desolate until you get nearer the shore and suddenly there are flocks of birds!
I saw many species including Oystercatchers, Turnstones, Redshank, Dunlin, Knot, Common Gulls and Herring Gulls.
They were all very skittish and flew as soon as I got near enough for a shot so, following some advise I got from another photographer, I lay down on the freezing, damp shingle and used a beanbag to rest the lens on. After staying still for a while a small group of Turnstones started to walk nearer, oblivious to me, and allowed me to get some really close-in shots.
We drove across on Saturday and went straight to Titchwell Marsh which is renowned for it's many species of birds.
It's a relatively small reserve with a few hides looking over marshland but none of them situated in particularly good places so I didn't manage to get any decent photos of anything from them.
However the highlight of Titchwell is the shingle beach it backs onto. This is a large area which looks pretty desolate until you get nearer the shore and suddenly there are flocks of birds!
I saw many species including Oystercatchers, Turnstones, Redshank, Dunlin, Knot, Common Gulls and Herring Gulls.
They were all very skittish and flew as soon as I got near enough for a shot so, following some advise I got from another photographer, I lay down on the freezing, damp shingle and used a beanbag to rest the lens on. After staying still for a while a small group of Turnstones started to walk nearer, oblivious to me, and allowed me to get some really close-in shots.
Then several other birds started walking closer including this Redshank, Dunlin, Sanderling and Knot.
There were lots of birds flying around including this Common Gull, Redshank and Curlew.
After 2 hours or so of lying on the refrigerator shingle I got too cold and had to go back to the sheltered marshy area. On the way back to the visitor centre we spotted two Black-tailed Godwits in a pool to our right. The sun was nearly setting and cast a beautiful golden light on the birds.
A beautiful sunset over the marsh ended the day nicely and after taking a few shots we left Titchwell and headed for our B and B.
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