We are back and we aim to get our weekly sightings blog back to your screens in no time! We hope you have missed reading all the Wetland drama as much as we have missed writing about it. With the summer now behind us we are welcoming in the autumn awesomeness! But before we do let’s have a big round up of all the summer fun we have enjoyed with the visitors (both human and wildlife) here at Newport Wetlands.
We have had an amazing summer for butterflies, dragonflies, bees and other insects. We have seen 18 species of butterfly and 13 species of bee including the UK’s rarest bumblebee the Shrill Carder Bee. It has certainly been a fantastic year for these little guys, and we hope; if you have visited, you’ve managed to spot them! We are still practising our dragonfly identification, there are so many of them flying around they don’t stay still long enough!
Image credit: Hannah Beynon
Image Credit: Rhiannon Munro
Image credit: Jeremy White
Image Credit: Jeremy White
Our resident moth expert Kevin has been in his element this summer! Friday morning is moth trap morning, which the whole team loves to watch and help with. We have had weeks where we get over 400 individual moths of around 50-70 species of moth. Some highlights have been Feathered Gothic, Purple bar, Poplar and Elephant hawk, Gold spot and Antler Moth.
Image credit: Beth Lewis
Image Credit: Kevin Hewitt
One of our summer highlights was being able to run pond dipping twice a week. We never quite knew what we were going to get but we always had fun and learnt something new. Everyone got involved, even the adults had a go to “help”. After a year of being unable to run events it was lovely seeing everyone having a good time. Our pond stars were Great diving beetles, water scorpions and Three-spined stickleback.
Image credit: Josh Sankey
Image Credit: Josh Sankey
In this blog we would love to share the teams’ summer highlights. We have had so many laughs, excited dances and beaming smiles and it would be rude not to share. Our resident expert on all things Newport Wetlands had a fab summer but his highlight was orchid boogies! Once the orchids started to emerge across the wetlands, Jeremy let loose a little dance to show how excited he was! A real gold medal sighting from him was seeing a first since 2014 on the reserve. This was a Brown Argus butterfly.
Our Visitor experience team have had many amazing moments. Josh’s high was being invited along to the Goldcliff ringing group who come down to the Wetlands every now and then to ring birds here on the reserve. The guys who volunteer with the Gwent Ornithological Society were very informative and it was an amazing opportunity. It was also a major highlight for the team to hear that this group ringed a juvenile Bearded Reedling a few weeks later! We haven’t had as many sightings this year, so we are so pleased they are about and thriving! Keeping a bird themed best bits Kirsty’s highlight is one she won’t forget. A quiet Monday soon turned out to be the best way to start the week. Whilst stood on the coast path a Bittern came flying out the reed beds down on the mudflats and continued to fly over with elegance. It truly was incredible and a great first sighting! Chloe, our lover of birds of prey took on the insects this summer and ran our sweep netting events with a lovely family who thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the bugs, and so did Chloe! Beth’s highlight was seeing the centre come back to life with visitors and having the chance to educate as well as laugh with people. As much as we adore the wildlife it’s also the visitors that make Newport Wetlands special along with being able to welcome our volunteers back!
We have seen so many different species of bird as well as all the invertebrates. Below is a list of all recorded species we have spotted as well as our lovely visitors who report back to us after their walks. We look forward to the autumn and what it brings, please check out all our events we have coming up they are not to be missed!
Common frog, common toad, nursery web spider, Bearded reedling, Bittern, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Cetti's Warbler, Chiffchaff, Collared Dove, common sandpiper, common whitethroat, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Gadwall, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, great black-backed gull, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Green Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grey Heron, grey wagtail, Herring gull, Hobby, House martin, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, knot, Lesser black-backed gull, Lesser whitethroat, Linnet, Little egret, Little Grebe, little stint, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine falcon, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Raven, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Reed warbler, Ringed plover, Robin, Sand Martin, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler, Skylark, Song thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Tawny owl, Tufted Duck, Wheatear, wood sandpiper, Woodpigeon, Wren, yellow wagtail, Rudd, ashy mining bee, brown-banded carder bee, grey banded mining bee, Patchwork leaf-cutter bee, Red-tailed bumblebee, Shrill carder bee, common red soldier beetle, ladybird, Thick-legged flower beetle, red headed cardinal beetle, Buff/white-tailed bumblebee, Buff-tailed bumblebee, Common carder bumblebee, Early bumblebee, Garden bumblebee, white-tailed bumblebee, Comma butterfly, Common blue Butterfly, essex skipper butterfly, Gatekeeper butterfly, Green-veined white butterfly, large skipper butterfly, Large white butterfly, meadow brown butterfly, painted lady butterfly, Peacock butterfly, Red admiral butterfly, ringlet butterfly, small copper butterfly, small heath butterfly, small skipper butterfly, Small tortoiseshell butterfly, Small white butterfly, Speckled wood butterfly, Azure damselfly, black-tailed skimmer dragonfly, Blue tailed damselfly, Common blue damselfly, common darter dragonfly, emperor dragonfly, Four Spot Chaser, ruddy darter dragonfly, small red damselfly, southern hawker dragonfly, Eristalis arbustorum, football hoverfly, marmalade hoverfly, 6-spot burnet moth, Bright-line brown-eye moth, buff arches moth, buff-tip moth, chinese character moth, cinnabar moth, common wainscot moth, elephant hawk moth, Heart and dart moth, Kent Black Arches moth, Magpie moth, oak eggar moth, obscure wainscot moth, peach blossom moth, poplar hawk moth, Scarlet tiger moth, Shaded broad-bar moth, silky wainscot moth, smoky wainscot moth, southern wainscot moth, Monochroa Palustrellus moth, slender bodied digger wasp, great diving beetle, field mouse, Rabbit, shrew, Stoat, Weasel, wood mouse, grass vetchling, tufted vetch, Marsh helleborine, Southern marsh orchid, Grass snake.
Image credit: Kirsty Lindsay
The VEA team