Newport Wetlands

Saturday 6th December 2008

I spent the day with Mark, Andy and Mhairi in Gwent at Newport Wetlands. The weather was fantastic wall to wall sunshine, and feeling warm. The highlight was the wader flocks. The several thousand Knot and Dunlin created stunning aerial displays whenever they took to the air as the tide approached. Here's a summary of our sightings:

Little Grebe - 6
Eurasian Cormorant - 1 over
Little Egret - 3
Mute Swan - several
Shelduck - c40 on the foreshore
Wigeon - c20
Gadwall - c30
Eurasian Teal - 3
Mallard - numerous
Pintail - 3 on the foreshore
Shoveler - c15
Pochard - 1
Tufted Duck - c10
Goldeneye - 2
Common Buzzard - 2
Common Kestrel - 1
Moorhen - numerous
Coot - numerous
Ringed Plover - 1
Golden Plover - 3
Grey Plover - 8
Lapwing - 60
Knot - 5,000
Dunlin - 1,000
Jack Snipe - 1
Common Snipe - 50
Black-tailed Godwit - 100
Curlew - 50
Common Redshank - 40
Turnstone - 8
Black-headed Gull - numerous
Common Gull - several
Lesser Black-backed Gull - several
Herring Gull - numerous
Great Skua - 1 distant towards Flatholm
Wood Pigeon - several
Collared Dove - 2
Green Woodpecker - 1 near centre
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1 near centre
Meadow Pipit - c20
Grey Wagtail
Wren - very numerous
Dunnock - numerous
Robin - numerous
Stonechat - 8
Blackbird - several
Song Thrush - 1
Redwing - 3
Mistle Thrush - 1
Cetti's Warbler - 4
Long-tailed Tit - 12
Blue Tit - several
Great Tit - several
Bearded Tit - 2
Magpie - 4
Carrion Crow - several
Raven - 4
Starling - 1
House Sparrow - 2
Chaffinch - 10
Greenfinch - 3
Goldfinch - 8
Linnet - 25
Reed Bunting - 10



(Photos, from the top: Knot and Dunlin, Reed Bunting, Stonechat)

Comments

Anonymous said…
there are some good gwent records there, such as the skua, golden plover and jack snipe. any chance you could send them onto the County recorder? details are on the gwent bird site.
Cheers
Luke
9 December 2008 at 20:04
Paul said…
Hi Luke - Yes, all sightings will be entered on to Birdtrack (when the facility is back up from maintenance) and copied to the CR.
9 December 2008 at 21:03
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