Recent sightings from 10 to 16 September 2018
The wetlands still attract quite a number of waders with Curlew, Oystercatcher and Black-tailed godwit amongst the regulars. There has been a big flock of the latter of around 70 or 80 on Sunday. Another wader which is more regularly seen again now is the Snipe. Sometimes it can even be seen on the scrape out of our café window from where you can still see Teal, Grey heron and Little egret on a nearly daily basis. The lagoons at Goldcliff also had some interesting waders with Little stint and up to 4 Curlew sandpipers recorded this week after 2 Ruffs have been spotted last week. The Kingfisher still gives regular appearances at the wetlands and it is also a good time to spot birds of prey. Apart from Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard there are still some late Hobbies around and last week Peregrine and Merlin were recorded as well. Our Bearded Reedling Breakfast Walk on Saturday served up some nice sightings for the visitors as well. They were lucky to hear and to spot a group of 3 Bearded reedlings and a Bittern showed itself nicely circling over the reed beds for quite a while. It was the first sighting of the Bittern for weeks, so it is lovely to have it back on (the sightings) board.
Bearded reedling, Bittern, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti's warbler, Chiffchaff, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew sandpiper, Curlew, Dunlin, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Greater black-backed gull, Green woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Herring gull, Hobby, House martin, House sparrow, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Little egret, Little grebe, Little stint, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Redshank, Reed bunting, Ringed plover, Robin, Sand martin, Sedge warbler, Shelduck, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Stonechat, Swallow, Teal, Water rail, Wheatear, Whinchat, Wigeon, Willow warbler, Wood pigeon, Wren and Yellow wagtail.
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!
Photo credit: Bittern by John Bridges (rspb-images.com)