Recent sightings from 17 to 23 March 2018
Today's guest blogger is Jeremy, who has been looking at birds around the visitor centre today and replenishing the feeders, trying to keep up with some hungry birds now that they are marking out their territories and starting to build their nests. His observations for the day are as follows:
'Volunteer days at the Wetlands are usually really varied. Today (25/3) was no exception with some really nice weather promised by the forecasters creating the conditions for some decent birdwatching and plenty of visitors. The birds were busy – two of us spent 90 minutes just outside the café with a ‘scope, some binoculars and a camera talking to visitors about what could be seen and where. There was a lot of springtime activity by the mallard, coots and gadwall. The chiffchaff, reed buntings and Cetti’s warblers were much more reticent and stayed amongst the golden reeds giving us fleeting glimpses where the winter winds had thinned the reeds. In 90 minutes, much of the time spent talking, the “café watch” had noted 20 species without moving far from the door: mute swan, gadwall, mallard, common pochard, little grebe, grey heron, marsh harrier, coot, woodpigeon, kestrel, magpie, carrion crow, blue tit, great tit, Cetti’s warbler, chiffchaff, reed bunting, greenfinch, goldfinch, house sparrow. We’ll tweet some photos @RSPBNewport'
Little grebe by Tracy Dunsford
The list for the preceding week is:
Avocet, Bearded reedling, Bittern, Black redstart, Blackbird, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Carrion crow, Cetti's warbler, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Green woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Herring gull, House sparrow, Jay, Kestrel, Lapwing, Little egret, Little grebe, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Meadow pipit, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pied wagtail, Pintail, Pochard, Raven, Redshank, Redwing, Reed bunting, Ringed plover, Robin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Snipe, Spotted redshank, Stonechat, Teal, Tufted duck, Water rail, Wheatear, Wheatear, Wigeon, Woodpigeon.
Please note that we take our recent sightings list from the visitor sightings board that anyone can contribute to. This is great as everyone can get involved, but obviously can lead to potential errors too as they aren’t always verified! We try to keep this list as accurate as possible but if you see something unusual feel free to comment here!