Recent sightings from 17 to 23 June 2019
After the rain and wind of last week, the weather was much kinder to us this week and with it came lots of exciting sightings. During our Bearded Reedling and Breakfast Walk on Wednesday our group not only got a glimpse of a bearded reedling but also a good view of two otters. This was well worth getting up early for! The bearded reedling was seen once more later that day and once again on Friday. There were loads of chicks and loads of feeding activities to be seen this week. On the lagoons you could spot with a bit of luck a family of tufted ducks with eight ducklings and a pochard with three ducklings. Mallards, moorhen, Canada geese and little grebes were kept busy by their offspring as well. The reedbeds were a hive of activity and often you could see reed and sedge warbler as well as reed buntings flying back and forth with food in their bills and one young reed warbler showed itself for quite some time near the bridge towards the lighthouse on Friday. A grasshopper warbler didn’t go unnoticed on Saturday. On the mudflats were the usual suspects with up to 80 shelduck and during the weekend there were 25 curlews around which is quite a decent number for this time of the year. More than a splash of colour was added by a kingfisher which has been spotted Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. There were also lots of butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies on the wing. Five-spot burnet moths were seen frequently flying over the reeds and meadow browns emerged in good numbers. Four-spotted chaser and emperor were amongst the dragonflies spotted. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that a hobby got seen on Wednesday as well and a peregrine was flying around near the power station. The highlight at Goldcliff Lagoons was once again the spoonbill which was there for most of the week and was joined by the glossy ibis on Wednesday and Saturday. As usual, the lagoons also held a variety of wading birds. Especially greenshank and sanderling on Wednesday as well as a bar-tailed godwit on Sunday attracted the attention of the birdwatchers but there were also ringed and little ringed plover around as well as black-tailed godwit and dunlin. A Mediterranean gull on Thursday was another rare visitor to Goldcliff. So, all in all a week with a lot of great sightings which was rounded off nicely by a tree full of 30 long-tailed tits on Sunday and we can’t wait what the next week will bring.
Saturday 6th July is the National Meadows Day and you can celebrate it with your kids in the morning with lots of fun activities exploring what plants and animals live in our meadows. You will also get creative with natural materials. The Big Wild Sleepout on 17th August isn’t too far away any more either. Details of all our events can be found on our website: https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/newport-wetlands/
Avocet, Bar-tailed godwit, Bearded reedling, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti's warbler, Chiffchaff, Collared dove, Common whitethroat, Coot, Cormorant, Cuckoo, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Gadwall, Garden warbler, Glossy ibis, Goldfinch, Grasshopper warbler, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grey heron, Greylag goose, Herring gull, Hobby, House martin, House sparrow, Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Lesser black-backed gull, Lesser whitethroat, Linnet, Little egret, Little grebe, Little ringed plover, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Meadow pipit, Mediterranean gull, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Pochard, Raven, Redshank, Reed bunting, Reed warbler, Ringed plover, Robin, Sand martin, Sanderling, Sedge warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler, Skylark, Song thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spoonbill, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Tufted duck, Wigeon, Woodpigeon and Wren.
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: Tufted duck with ducklings by Jeremy White