So, what happens in a day talking to visitors at the visitor centre?
The meet and greet role at the visitor centre is primarily a volunteer role and we each have a slightly different approach to getting started on our day’s work. My preference is to arrive as early as I can and go for an early walk so that I can enjoy the sights and sounds while the wildlife is still active and easier to watch than later in the day. I vary my route week by week and look for changes and anything unusual. Camera and binoculars are my usual companions.
If I’ve been watching the time, I’ll be back at the visitor centre before 10:00 in plenty of time to help set up the gazebo and information point, welcome and brief any other volunteers sharing the day with me and then start talking to visitors as they arrive. Our role is to give people the information they need to enjoy their day and, hopefully, enjoy it so much that they want to come back and spend more time with nature.
A lot of our conversations convey basic information – how do I pay for parking, where is the lighthouse, is the Bittern booming yet – and some go into much greater depth so giving accurate and helpful answers can be a team effort. Identifying small, brown birds from a brief description of a fleeting glimpse can be a challenge for us, but we’ll try!
Some visitors leave a lasting impression.
One of my colleagues recalled: “Birdwatchers arrive from around the globe as well as lots of local families visited Newport Wetlands on Sunday. On Sunday, we met two brothers from America who had travelled to the UK to add some special species to their lists. Their first stop was the Scilly Isles where they were delighted by Puffins and Manx shearwaters. Next on their trip, Newport Wetlands to try and capture images of Bearded Reedling, Bittern, Marsh Harrier and Little Owl. We hope they very much enjoyed their day with us."
Last Sunday, two young children made a beeline for the recently cleared reen … always something that catches our attention as we’d prefer that sensitive plants didn’t get trampled, and we didn’t have to pull youngsters out of the water. Within moments, these two had begun spotting wildlife, and identifying it, in the slightly murky water. They found pond skaters, whirligig beetles, spiders and fish and started showing them to me. The fish was a male stickleback in nice breeding colours (silvery on top, striking red below) and was swimming around looking for a mate. The spider was about the size of my little fingernail, pale gold in the sunlight and happily walking across the water’s surface.
The Sticklebacks became one of my little photographic projects for the day and in quiet moments I followed a few. The most absorbing, and the most interesting to show visitors later in the day were a male and female. The female was soaking up the warm sunlight just below the water surface and the male was trying to get her attention swimming round her, bumping into her in an attempt to lead her towards his planned nest site in the edge of the reed stems and finally swimming down to the nest in a “follow me” sort of way. Though the female was clearly carrying many eggs, she didn’t show much interest and stayed in the warm water however ardent the male was. These little fish move so quickly that it’s hard to get sharp photos through the glare and murk. Dozens of discarded photos later, I had some worth keeping.
The butterflies were easier to spot and watch, though with few flowers in bloom they rarely settled long enough for a decent photograph. They became another little project for quiet moments and something else to talk to visitors about. Wildlife we can actually show to visitors opens up the opportunity to help people learn the observation skills needed to get the very most out of wildlife. We’ll often help with families where parents need a little extra knowledge to show just how fascinating wildlife can be. How do you find a yellow butterfly amongst yellow willow blossoms and what’s it up to?
The answer is to have eyes in the back of your head. The Brimstones were flying very actively, zooming around searching for blooms which would yield nectar, finding none and zooming away in seconds. I caught a glimpse of one out of the corner of my eye that seemed to fly past the pussy willow blossoms, but I didn’t see it come out the far side of the tree. I grabbed my camera and walked up the ramp that leads up to the visitor centre and stared at the mass of blossoms. Everything was the same shade of yellow but after a minute I noticed one bloom open and close its wings … a well camouflaged Brimstone was nectaring in full view. Click. Photo taken and another couple of visitors stopped to look and chat.
The list of butterflies (Comma, Small White, Red admiral, Peacock, Brimstone) wasn’t bad for the end of March. We’ll soon start our regular monitoring of butterfly species and numbers as part of the National UK butterfly monitoring scheme (their annual report highlights significant declines https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/half-of-uk-butterfly-species-in-long-term-decline-monitoring-reveals ).
A colleague found a small, pale-yellow snail attempting to cross a path near the entrance and put it in the grass away from passing feet. We saved a photo for later identification. Snails are tricky to identify with certainty, and the closest we could get with any certainty was that this snail was a yellow form of the White-lipped snail. We can’t realistically offer 100% certainty for all the IDs we attempt!
All the information we gather from our own sightings and from visitors’ goes onto one of the sightings boards (there’s one in the visitor centre and one at the gazebo). The are valuable for us as we can help the next visitor to ask us what wildlife is about with information about what and where … this weekend’s favourite question was about our Bitterns and where to see them and where to hear them (yes, they are beginning to boom). At the end of the week the daily lists go into a spreadsheet for analysis to produce summary information (like the monthly lists in these blogs) and to look at some long-term stats (when to our Cuckoos arrive … on average, the date they are first recorded is 16 April).
And, of course, we’re not just about birds. Everything that’s natural is important. Without the plants we wouldn’t have the insects and seeds that birds feed on, for example. The plants we noticed in bloom were: Willow, Primroses, Lesser celandines, Dandelions, and Blackthorn.
The fill list of species for March is below.
We couldn’t let March pass without noting that the reserve was opened 25 years ago in March 2020. The changes, partly managed and partly nature’s own work, since the creation of the reserve are remarkable.
Author and Images: Jeremy White
Amphibian
Common frog, Common toad
Bird
Avocet, Bar-tailed godwit, Bearded reedling, Bittern, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti's Warbler, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal tit, Collared dove, Common redpoll, Common sandpiper, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Goldcrest, Golden plover, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Great crested grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great tit, Great white egret, Green woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Greylag goose, Herring Gull, House martin, House sparrow, Jack Snipe, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Knot, Lapwing, Lesser black-backed gull, Linnet, Little egret, Little Grebe, Little owl, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Merlin, Mistle thrush, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine falcon, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Pochard, Raven, Red Kite, Redshank, Redwing, Reed bunting, Reed warbler, Ringed plover, Robin, Sand martin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Skylark, Snipe, Song thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Redshank, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Swallow, Teal, Tufted duck, Water Rail, Whimbrel, Wigeon, Willow warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren
Fish
Rudd, Stickleback
Insect - bee
Honey bee
Insect - bumblebee
Buff/white-tailed bumblebee
Insect - butterfly
Brimstone Butterfly, Comma butterfly, Peacock butterfly, Red admiral butterfly, Small tortoiseshell butterfly, Small white butterfly, Speckled wood butterfly
Mammal
Badger, Bank vole, Grey squirrel, Rabbit, Stoat, Water vole, Weasel
Plant
Cuckoo flower, Daisy, Dandelion, Gorse, Primrose
Plant - tree
Alder, Blackthorn, Goat willow, Hazel
Reptile
Grass snake