August brought with it some hot weather and some surprise visitors like this Great White Egret. This individual arrived in the second half of July and stayed with us throughout August (eight weeks in all). It’s a very unusual visitor for us, partly because we have at most half a dozen sightings each year and partly because it was so confiding that it spent most of its time right outside the café windows. We don’t know where it came from, but the obvious guess is that it was from the population in Somerset.
Image credit: Ieuan Evans
Our reens, reedbeds and lagoons are ideal breeding and hunting habitats for “Odonata” – Dragonflies and Damselflies. Dragonfly nymphs are one of the common finds when pond dipping. They spend two or three years living in the mud and plant debris at the bottom of our pools before emerging in summer to with their sparkling colours and aerobatic flights.
Our sightings board provides an idea of which of there fast flying aerial hunters have been confidently identified this year:
Azure damselfly, Blue tailed damselfly, Common blue damselfly, Large red damselfly, Small red-eyed damselfly, Variable damselfly, Black-tailed skimmer dragonfly, Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly, Common Darter Dragonfly, Common hawker dragonfly, Emperor dragonfly, Four spot chaser dragonfly, Hairy dragonfly, Migrant hawker dragonfly, Ruddy darter dragonfly, Southern hawker dragonfly.
This tiny bird, a Goldcrest, is quite common but hard to spot. Making a photograph this good is a real challenge.
One of the challenges at Newport Wetlands is to find the tiny birds which spend the summer hiding in the shrubs reeds before the autumn is upon us and they migrate south to their winter homes.
Most of our warblers are migrants, spending the summer here feeding and breeding and then returning to their winter homes in Africa. A few stay here for the winter, trading the risks of harsh weather against the perils of long migration flights. So in winter you’ll be able to hear a few Cettis’ warblers and Chiffchaffs which have decided to stay put (possibly because our winters are becoming less harsh as our climate changes). All our Sedge warblers, like the one pictured, fly away to over winter south of the Sahara.
Image credit: Jeremy White
We’re used to the odd behaviour of some of our resident birds. This male Canada goose had been teaching the pair’s goslings to fly which involves racing across the café scrape at speed, flapping and generally making a lot of noise before crashing into the reeds. Finally, the young birds surprise themselves by becoming airborne and having to decide what to do next. For this year’s family, the next thing they did was land on the café roof and take stock. Mum lead the way back onto the water with an elegant swoop. One by one the youngsters walked of the edge and splashed down again leaving the proud father admiring his brood paddling away for a snack of waterweed.
This year has been our best yet for Jersey Tiger moths with eight trapped and several viewed around the reserve. This may be a sign of things to come as this species has been confined to the south coast of England (Dorset, Devon) but may now be spreading north and west in response to climate change.
If you’re interested in our moths, you could come and watch one of our regular “moth reveals”. We set out light traps on Friday evenings and the following morning carefully remove and release the moths they caught. Come to the visitor centre after 09:00, bring your camera, and be prepared to be amazed.
Image credit: Jeremy White Numbers of Speckled wood butterflies reach their peak with the second brood’s emergence in late August and their population then dwindles in September. They spend most of their time high up in the leafy canopy drinking honeydew exuded by aphids which pierce veins to obtain sap. They rarely visit flowers for nectar, so their life cycle is closely tied into the availability of aphids.
They are often seen defending patches of sunlight in woods and hedgerows. Two butterflies flying up into the air spiralling around each other is a common sight on sunny days.
If you have taken some lovely photos at RSPB Newport Wetlands or have a sighting to share, email us at Newport-wetlands@rspb.org.uk with your images and a couple of sentences to go into next months blog.
Common frog, Candy-striped spider, Common long-jawed orbweb spider, Garden spider, Noble false widow spider, Nursery web spider, Wolf spider, Bittern, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed gull, Black-tailed godwit, Blue tit, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti's warbler, Chiffchaff, Collared dove, Common Whitethroat, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Gadwall, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Great white egret, Green woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Herring gull, Hobby, House martin, House sparrow, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Knot, Lesser black-backed gull, Lesser whitethroat, Little egret, Little grebe, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine falcon, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Raven, Reed bunting, Reed warbler, Robin, Sand martin, Sedge warbler, Shelduck, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Stonechat, Swallow, Teal, Treecreeper, Water rail, wheatear, Willow tit, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellow wagtail, Hornet, 7-spot ladybird, great diving beetle, Shore sexton beetle, Brown-banded carder bee, Buff/white-tailed bumblebee, Common carder bumblebee, Shrill carder bee, Comma butterfly, Common blue butterfly, gatekeeper butterfly, Green-veined white butterfly, Large white butterfly, Meadow brown butterfly, Peacock butterfly, Red admiral butterfly, Small tortoiseshell butterfly, Small white butterfly, Speckled wood butterfly, Azure damselfly, Common Darter Dragonfly, Emperor dragonfly, Migrant hawker dragonfly, ruddy darter dragonfly, Marmalade hoverfly, Angle-shades moth, Black rustic moth, Box tree moth, Brown-veined wainscot moth, Brussels lace moth, Canary-shouldered thorn moth, Common wainscot moth, Elephant hawk moth, L-album wainscot moth, Light emerald moth, Lilac beauty moth, Rush veneer moth, Rusty dot pearl moth, Sallow moth, Silver Y moth, Square spot rustic moth, Turnip moth, Bank vole, Otter, Rabbit, Short-tailed vole, Stoat, Weasel, Grass snake, Great house spider.