Just got back in!
I think I have left everyone there in a bit of a tizz! ;o)
Had a great day there today!
Finally saw the Little Owl on it's roosting point on the broken tree!
I sat by the shoreline at hight tide for an hour, watching Curlews, Yellow Wagtails, Wheatears and Cetti Warblers.
But the best was yet to come.
Walking back to the vistor centre I flushed an odd bird onto the wattle fencing by the Uskmouth Powerstation lagoon. I managed to get a couple of clear shots of it before it flew off. i couldn't really ID it, so when I got back to the visitor centre (via a detour to take some photos of a stunning grass snake I encountered on the way back), I asked Mathew to ID it ...
The next thing he is dashing around getting his scope, and we are marching back to the spot I saw said bird ... turns out, I had photographed a Wryneck!!
I am on the lap top at the moment, but hopefully I will be able to get the photo up on here a bit later!
But what a find, I knew it was something different, and I usually get home and ID them. I am not confindent enough to tell people I have seen things unless I am 100% sure!
Great day, and for once, in great weather!
Photo to follow!
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).
Lovely shot Cath ... ;o)
Had an email back from the Gwent County Recorder.
The Wryneck I spotted was the 31st recorded instance of the bird in the county since records began (1974?), the second this year for Gwent.
It was the second Wryneck recorded at Newport Wetlands in it's current guise, the last one in 1998. It is the third recorded Wryneck at Uskmouth.