Went down yesterday afternoon to try and walk some of the Christmas excess off, in time to refuel with New Years Night excess! ;o)
Good to see the reserve with plenty of visitors, not a seat to be had in the cafe, and the soup seemed to be selling like ... erm .. hot soup? ;o)
Had a quick chat to Gideon, whom I will no doubt confuse in the New Year if I shave my beard off! He said it was quiet out on the reserve. He wasn't wrong!
I was quite shocked to see how incredibly iced up the lakes still were, I would guess there was a good few inches of ice on all of the them. And that left them bereft of life .. not even a Coot! (We did find some on the Western most lake at the end of the day).
But as always, you always find something to see.
There was a large flock of Knots on the high tides edge. We had spotted them swirling in the air when we arrived. By the time we had walked to the lighthouse, they were being attacked by a Peregrine or a Sparrowhawk, and were sent into a frenzy of swirls and shapes in the air. I managed to get a couple of photos of them, and will get them up onto Flickr and here eventually. I did use one as my blipfoto entry yesterday .. Knots Of Newport Wetlands. There was quite a gathering of people watching in the end.
Enjoyed the walk around, and we were glad we got out and got some fresh air, and more importantly, some more bird food for the hungry mouths back home!
Interesting to see they have started a loyalty scheme there now, whereby you collect stamps that are eventually redeemable for a voucher.
Happy New Year to all the staff there at Newport, it's been fun meeting you this year, and look forward to chatting more to you in 2010.
Hana, I have no idea if you were working yesterday. If you were, and did serve me I apologise for not introducing myself.
Happy New Year to all my friends on here as well .. hope 2011 is full of Waxwings, Bitterns, Water Rails and them darned elusive Bearded Tits! ;o)
Ant
"IT IS SAID THAT LIFE FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES BEFORE YOU DIE. THAT IS TRUE, IT'S CALLED LIVING."Death - Terry Pratchett (The Last Continent).
Unknown said: He said it was quiet out on the reserve. He wasn't wrong! I was quite shocked to see how incredibly iced up the lakes still were, I would guess there was a good few inches of ice on all of the them. And that left them bereft of life .. not even a Coot! (We did find some on the Western most lake at the end of the day).
He said it was quiet out on the reserve. He wasn't wrong!
Thanks for the warning....I'm going to the guided walk tomorrow, so I'll try not to get my hopes up ;-)
Maybe an extra day of thawing will open up some of the waterways and encourage the birds to come out...fingers crossed!
How did the year list walk go after?
About 30 people on the walk - so we split into 2 groups. But not much wildlife unfortunately - our guide was hoping we'd see some little owls (if memory serves me right) that are regularly there, but not yesterday. Not much on the mudflats - a curlew and a small flock of what appeared to be knots. The waterways were still largely frozen but we did get to see coots and reed buntings.
By the time we headed back to the visitor center it was pretty busy....plenty of people out getting some new year fresh air. I had to stand to drink my complementary coffee!
Yup, they were knots ... I linked to my pic of them in the first message in this thread. ;o)