At the weekend I took advantage of a short break in the seemingly relentless rain to visit Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve.  Although the decent weather didn’t last, my brief visit turned out to be jam-packed full of a vast variety of birds.

These snipe were oddly gathered in a big group (64+). I have never seen them in such numbers before –  is it strange for them to group like this?

Outside one of the hides a flock of siskins and long tailed tits gathered in this tree and the siskins began feeding on the cones. It gave me a perfect opportunity to take some photos of their green feathers shining in the sunlight.

The long tailed tits, on the other hand, were flitting around in the trees making their high pitched squeak call and were very hard to photograph.

Also whilst I was there I had a good view of a male and female marsh harrier hunting, even when it was pouring with rain. Sorry for the blurry photo, it was moving very fast and I couldn’t focus in time.

Other things I saw included stonechats, black headed gulls, shovellers, teal  and various other waders and waterfowl.