Finally got down to Uskmouth for a few hours again yesterday, weather was dry but unfortunately, rather overcast to say the least, not ideal for photography, but there was at least some bird activity to report.
Not much other that the usual suspects on the Visitor Centre scrape but it does hold out hope now that the water levels are lower, with several little Egrets visiting during the time I was there. Headed out towards the lighthouse for the 11:00 an tide and was greeted, through the gloom, by a nice Male Beardie bouncing along the top of the reed bed "pinging" in time with the bounces.
The estuary produced the usual mix of waders ducks and common gulls, a lot of activity from various Tit flocks and Reed Buntings were everywhere. Turned towards hide, and because of the previous Beardie sighting decided to spend an hour in the small viewpoint. The viewpoint only provided more views of Reed buntings, Ducks, and more tit flocks - really feel that the water level is being maintained a little too high after what has been a pretty dry period, a little mud visible would vary the habitat range nicely.
headed off towards the east with every intention of visiting the hide Copse and that general area, as is normal I stopped off at the benches as I went to scan across the estuary - To be presented by the The sight of several Egrets. One of these seemed huge compared to the rest and I immediately thought Great White Egret as they have been reported in the general area recenly. I thus spent the next two hours or so following the GWE along the foreshore as it headed towards the Cardiff end of the reserve. I did bump into Matt, Complete with transport ;-) who was also looking for the bird, without much luck at this time.
It appears that this bird was reported at Goldcliff in the morning, Then seen heading towards Uskmouth , then My sightings, and Matt finally caught up with it briefly at Goldcliff again yesterday evening.
It may well be giving any Egrets seen around the area a good check as this bird may stay a few days :-)
On the insect front, there are still a few Dragonflies around, with Migrant Hawker and Ruddy Darters in the majority, There a a good number of Clouded Yellows about along the estuary path, and I did manage one Small Copper along Perry lane.
Best regardsNigel
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The forum is getting quieter, so thank you for the welcome report. Well done for spotting a Great white egret on the reserve. It can be quite easy to dismiss all super white birds as little egrets without really considering the size too much.
Sandra and I went down on Saturday morning. It was very calm and warm even though the sun barely broke through the clouds. We followed the pings and short views of Bearded tits from the bridge along the foreshore (opposite direction to the hide) and were rewarded with views of 14 Bearded tits in a flock. They hung around in the reeds around us for quite a few minutes before moving back up the reserve. I tried a few photos but the autofocus on my sx50 fixes on the reed stems and the birds don't stay that still to use the very slow manual focus.
Great reports guys, so pleased to hear the Beardie flocks are about now - they were definitely flocking earlier last year but one thing I'm learning is how variable events can be depending on the kind of year its been, weather-wise.
I got back from Majorca last week and managed a brief visit to Goldcliff - the new viewing platform is ace but unfortunately I was there in the afternoon and there's the usual problem of the birds being silhouetted from the photography point of view and of course the distance. Still thanks to helpful folks with scopes saw Marsh Harrier (Boat Lane) Ruff, Little Stint, Barwits, Snipe etc. I didn't see the Pectoral Sandpiper which has been down there for a while according to GOS.
I'm back in London at the moment helping my son install a kitchen but looking forward to being able to share some Balearic birds when I get back. Meanwhile here's a quick sample that I've just downloaded off my Facebook feed. I decided to go bridge camera and got the Lumix with a 60x zoom. The first image shows the scene in front of me and the last has been cropped from maximum zoom. Looking froward to giving it a spin down in Uskmouth next week!