Recent sightings from 14 to 20 January 2019
Another well and truly exciting week at the Newport Wetlands with lots of interesting sightings. The mudflats continued to be full of wading birds. Huge flocks of Curlew, Lapwing and Dunlin were once again joined by Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Black-tailed godwits. A flock of 200 of the latter was present on Tuesday and were disturbed by a Peregrine which caused panic amongst the waders. There were also some rarer visitors in amongst them this week with Sanderling, Knot, Ringed plover, some Golden plovers and up to 66 Grey plovers. The Snipe was once again a regular on the scrape and a Spotted redshank at Goldcliff lagoons rounded off the quite impressive selection of waders. It was a very good week as well for spotting owls. The Little owl was regularly seen sitting on its favourite tree, but there was a pleasant surprise on Thursday when there were not one but two Little owls to be seen. Tuesday late afternoon a Barn owl was flying over the car park. The second half of the week proved to be very productive for sightings of the Short-eared owl. It was first seen on Thursday near the hide and then once again on Saturday and Sunday as well. Another quite exotic visitor to the wetlands was a Glossy ibis. It was first spotted on Monday and then again on a rainy Friday afternoon when it was flying over the reedbeds. During the weekend it was still around with the sighting on Sunday from Goldliff lagoons. Other highlights include a Bittern on Saturday and an Otter on Sunday.
Barn owl, Bearded reedling, Bittern, Blackbird, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti's warbler, Chaffinch, Coal tit, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Glossy ibis, Goldcrest, Golden plover, Goldfinch, Great black-backed gull, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Green woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Grey plover, Greylag goose, Herring gull, House sparrow, Jay, Kestrel, Knot, Lapwing, Lesser black-backed gull, Linnet, Little egret, Little grebe, Little owl, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Pochard, Raven, Redshank, Redwing, Reed bunting, Ringed plover, Robin, Sanderling, Scaup, Shelduck, Short-eared owl, Shoveler, Snipe, Song thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spotted redshank, Starling, Stonechat, Teal, Treecreeper, Tufted duck, Water rail, 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: Grey plover (with Dunlin and Shelduck) by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)