If you’ve visited Newport Wetlands, especially if you’ve been to the cafe you will have noticed a big rectangular structure on the left hand side of the scrape outside the window. This is our sand martin box, a purpose built box with pre-made holes to encourage sand martins to nest here.
Sand martins however are a wary bunch, and like to nest with others for security, so we haven’t managed to convince them that others are present yet with the pre made holes. So we are trying a different tack, and introducing sand martin FM. We have attached a speaker playing sand martin noises to the nest box and we’ll see whether that will encourage them to nest here. A few have been spotted already so they’re starting to arrive so we’ll see what they make of our radio station. It’s also worth mentioning that we will only be playing it at certain times and we will stop once the season gets underway so as not to confuse the birds. Sand martins tend to be very site faithful, so if they decide to nest one year, the likelihood of them returning the next is high, they will only really change site if something changes. This is usually the nest site becoming unusable due to it collapsing or being targeted by predators. Fingers crossed some of the sand martins will take a chance and nest at Newport Wetlands.
Recent sightings 01/04 – 07/04
Avocet, Bearded reedling, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Canada goose, Cetti's warbler, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coot, Curlew, Dunlin, Gadwall, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great spotted woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey heron, Greylag goose, Kestrel, Lapwing, Little egret, Little grebe, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh harrier, Moorhen, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Pochard, Redshank, Reed bunting, Reed warbler, Ringed plover, Robin, Sand martin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Snipe, Stonechat, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Tufted duck, Whimbrel, Willow warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.