Wow, what an amazing night it was at Newport Wetlands on our Big Wild Sleepout last night! We started off by doing some pond dipping - the first thing we caught was a great specimen of a water scorpion. Many sticklebacks later the sun was starting to set, we'd had our dinner and were ready for the night's adventures! A dusk walk took in some spectacular views across the estuary, and we saw many birds heading off to roost for the night. The favourite sighting of the walk has to be the big group of cormorants all hanging out on the pylon by the Visitor Centre. We then had a whirlwind introduction to the night skies in the indoor planetarium and meteorite show. Many thanks to Usk Astronomical Society for all the amazing equipment and knowledge they brought with them - it really made the evening special.
Cormorants roosting by Martha Okon
Newport Wetlands Big Wild Sleepout by Martha Okon
Suddenly the sun had set and Common pipistrelle bats were starting to emerge from their summer roosts and flit around the Visitor Centre - catching insects with gusto! We took out the bat detectors and heard a symphony of echolocations as we made our way up to the lagoons to see if we could catch sight of any Daubenton's skimming the surface of the water on their nightly hunting expedition. As dusk turned into night-time we then got to look through the massive astronomical telescopes that Usk Astronomical Society had bought along. We saw Saturn glowing in the far distance, and a globular cluster of 500 million stars sparkling in the depths of the universe. But best of all we saw masses of shooting stars! And the best night for seeing the Perseid meteor shower is apparently on Wednesday, so I would definitely recommend popping out in your garden and checking it out for yourself on 12th Aug!
The night finished with toasted marshmallows around the campfire, and a last glimpse in the night sky to see that final shooting star! Tired but happy we all hopped into our sleeping bags and managed to get a few hours sleep before sunrise. The fun then continued with a lovely hot breakfast from the cafe whilst we viewed the local activity on the scrape. We were really excited to see a young Water rail wading between the reeds on the edge of the scrape, and a Grey heron patiently fishing with a good degree of success. We then tentatively opened the moth trap to see what we had caught overnight, and were not disappointed by the lovely array of creatures we had captured. We finished the morning off with a lovely stroll to the lighthouse, armed with telescopes and binoculars, and were rewarded for our efforts with a brief glimpse of the Bearded tits enjoying the peace and quiet of an early summers morning.
Many thanks to all the volunteers, staff and organisations who came to help out on the night, including Jon Lee from Cardiff Bat Group, and Nick Busby, Dave Thomas and team from Usk Astronomical Society. Thanks also to all the adventurers who came on the Big Wild Sleepout and made it such a fantastic evening!
Recent Sightings
Well done to all, glad it was a successful night.