Bearded Reedling Guided Walk – Wednesday 20 June 2018Bearded reedlings are a bit like people – they like warm, sunny weather that’s still. Starting out at 07:30 on a day that was cold, damp, breezy and threatening rain from the west wasn’t ideal but it did offer the best chance of a sighting. We might have caught a glimpse of one beardy in flight just above the reeds, but it was hard to be certain.But we did amass quite a good list of nearly 30 species:Blackbird, Black-headed gull, Buzzard (pair soaring effortlessly over Uskmouth), Carrion Crow, Cetti’s warbler (heard), Coot, Cormorant (flying sideways across the wind), Curlew (a lone bird at the edge of the saltmarsh), Goldfinch (making the most of our feeders), Green woodpecker (feeding on ants on one of the paths), Grey heron (popping up in most of the lagoons and then spending much of the day on the scrape), Herring gull, House martin, House sparrow, Jay, Kestrel (lovely view of a pair hunting over the sea wall), Little grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute swan, Reed bunting, Reed warbler, Sedge warbler, Shelduck, Swallow, Tufted duck, Water rail (heard), Wood pigeon.And, as luck would have it, more species turned up through the day with the last being the Canada goose families turning up on the scrape just as the café closed. There were other treats, too, with lots of damselflies, plenty of caterpillars and a profusion of wild orchids.
Jeremy White
Photo credit: Jeremy White