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Gwent birding (1 Viewer)

luke

luke

A Welsh birder in Dorset!
Right here we go! i think gwents about the only county without one of these threads so i'll start one.

Enjoy!

The last time i was out was monday so i'll have to note that.

Newport wetlands - Goldcliff. 6/8/07
1 Green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 2 dunlin, 3 greenshank and about 18 yellow wagtail. Tide was out hence the lack of waders!
 
Newport wetlands this morning: 10 Black tailed Godwit, 5 avocet, 2 ruff, 5 greenshank, 2 redshank, 1 curlew, 1 ringed plover, 15 dunlin, 2 knot, 1 common sandpiper, 25 lapwing and at least 9 snipe. Also over at SaltMarsh lane 3 whinchat and plenty of warblers in the hedge rows.

Also a few yellow wags with the dozens of pied wags. but the numbers seem to be going down. There were 40 last week! Also the first of the the winter wildfowl is starting to arrive with plenty of teal around and a few pochards which are new in today.

the ruff were great as there was a juv male and juvf female together and what size difference! I went to the pools for a wood sandpiper which was reported yesturday but no luck at high tide this morning1
 
Went down to the wetlands this morning as a spoonbill was reported last night. however the spoonbill was nowhere to be seen. The pools were quiet until a bloke sitting on one of the platforms asked me to ID a bird for him. he thought he might have seen a phalarope. But he couldnt find the bird in question. then a small gull came in and landed rigth in front of the screen and he said that it! it was a 1st winter little gull. (a rarity in gwent)

Apart from that there wasnt much else to report. So from the lagoons we moved over to saltmarsh lane which leads to the reed bed area. there we found a group of redstart, about 4, and had good veiws of a lesser whitethroat out in the open! we also went up onto the sea wall to look over the mud. There were numerous small flocks of dunlin and ringed plover, probably in all about a 100 of each, also a flock of 35+ knot, 48 curlew and 4 whimbrel. also a wheatear on the sea wall.
 
Garnlydan Reservoir and moorland this afternoon:

1 F Marsh harrier hunting over the moorland for about half an hour. this is incredibly rare this far north in gwent! it also flushed a grouse which i needed for my year list. This site however is divided, as the breconshire border is right through the moorland. the bird was in breconshire for most of the time but did come into gwent. The grouse was in breconshire.
At one point the harrier landed right next to a red kite which wasnt very impressed. the kite then decided it didnt like the harrier and pushed it off the rock.

At the reservoir there was an oystercatcher which is the first record i have heard of from there, also an arctic tern which again isnt recorded at this site very often, maybe one or two records a year.

other birds about included 4 whinchat, 3 stonechat, 6 wheatear which i thought might have gone by now, a flock of about 100 meadow pipits. Raptors included 1 f sparrow hawk, 3 buzzard, 2 kestrel, 1 peregrine, 1 redkite (aswell as the one on the moorland), and ofcourse the marsh harrier.
 

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luke said:
Garnlydan Reservoir and moorland this afternoon:

1 F Marsh harrier hunting over the moorland for about half an hour. this is incredibly rare this far north in gwent! it also flushed a grouse which i needed for my year list. This site however is divided, as the breconshire border is right through the moorland. the bird was in breconshire for most of the time but did come into gwent. The grouse was in breconshire.
At one point the harrier landed right next to a red kite which wasnt very impressed. the kite then decided it didnt like the harrier and pushed it off the rock.

At the reservoir there was an oystercatcher which is the first record i have heard of from there, also an arctic tern which again isnt recorded at this site very often, maybe one or two records a year.

other birds about included 4 whinchat, 3 stonechat, 6 wheatear which i thought might have gone by now, a flock of about 100 meadow pipits. Raptors included 1 f sparrow hawk, 3 buzzard, 2 kestrel, 1 peregrine, 1 redkite (aswell as the one on the moorland), and ofcourse the marsh harrier.
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Well I know where I will be walking the dog this evening!Cheers Luke.Great idea this thread.
 
I didnt manage to see the Harrier but Luke and Gary Howells saw it briefly further up the moor.I did manage a quick snapshot of the Oystercatcher though.This is also the first time I have seen one here.
 

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nice one mike, i think the oystercatcher is almost as rare up there, as the harrier! nice pic.
 
During the autumn I keep an eye on a hill west of Newport just past a hamlet know as Pen y lan.

Viz mig can be interesting at times with good numbers of a range of sp moving. Last year the best individual sightings were hobby, merlin, golden plover and a bird I was sure was a heard but not seen Yellow Browed warbler.

First visit of the autumn this morning produced

overflying single tree pipit and yellow watail the only viz mig with around 6 willow/chiffs in the bushes/trees. Also single yellowhammer and a few stock doves amongst the woodpigeons and jackdaws feedin on the recently ploughed fields.

A quiet one to start with but better ones to come.
 
Tried newport wetlands this morning on a very low tide therefore extremely quiet, the only highlights was redstart by the carpark, 6 whimbrel which flew over out onto the estuary and a stunning yellow wagtail on the pools.

So this afternoon i tried Manoel common, which is just above my house in Ebbw Vale. The mountain side can be quite good. Today there were a total of 5 redstart, including a group of 3 (1M & 2 juvs). there were also 6 buzzards along the ridge including a few youngsters.
 
wood sand reported from newport wetlands this afternoon so guess where i'll be tommorow morning!
 
went down at sunrise this morning to catch any waders that roosted on the pools. I did breifly see the wood sandpiper but it came in from the foreshore and landed in some rushes. but it never came out (or i didnt see it come, which is more likely.)

There was also a superb female merlin which showed well on a post from about 6:30am till 9:45. there was also 5 green sands, 1 common sand, 7 black tailed godwits, 2 greenshank, a spotted redhank which came in from the estuary and stayed litterally 10 seconds before heading back out. Also 1 male whinchat which was a nice suprise and 2 lesser whitethroat near the gate in the car park.

Also the duck numbers are starting to build with over 200 teal now on the pool. Another migrant which was present was a clouded yellow butterfly which is the first i've seen this year.
 
Garnlydan Reservoir this evening produced 180 lesser black backed gulls, 40 herring gulls, lots of juvs, but also one which i thaught could be a juv yellow legged gull. it wasnt disimilar from the juv black backs but was very pale almost white around the head and neck and had an overall 'black and white appearance? if that makes sense. also a large black bill.i saw a adult summer up there in the spring, so you never know!

also about were 2 whinchat still, 5 wheatear, 7 lapwing, 2 grey heron and 11 black headed gull which were also in the gull roost.
 
Had a report come through of a spoonbill at the wetlands just after mid-day, but i was looking at dormice, lucky me!!! So i had to wait until this evening.

Unfortunatly when i got there, no one else was there (which is never a good sign when soemthing rares about) but i went in and was greeted to veiws of two people wandering around the lagoon!!! i quickly ran over and asked them what the hell they were doing, as at the time they were infront of one of the hides. No way was i going to be polite as there are signs everywhere saying do not enter. They said the usual, 'oh, we didnt know'. so they went off trespassing on the neighbouring farm.

Luckily, about 30mins after they ahd gone the spoonbill decided it was going to come back and gave superb veiws as it cautiously came in and cirlcled the pools. it then soared for a few mins before coming in and settling on the back lagoon. I was pretty releived i saw it as i was still really annoyed about thos idiots.

Other sightings include, 4 yellow wags, 2 green sands, 1 greenshank, 8 black tailed godwit, 4 snipe, 10 little egret, also a few warbly birds in the hedges, mainly willow warblers.
 
Hi Luke,
I'm hoping to get to Newport Wetlands on Tues. Fingers crossed for the Spoonbill. Having said that, you have listed some good sightings of various Birds & Wildlife so I wont be disappointed.

Glad you started this thread Luke, as the latest postings on the Glam site are few & far between at the mo, & it's not helpful when regulars post a sighting & assume people will know what area they are referring too. eg. "Ring Ouzel flying south from my garden"......where?

Apologies to any regular from Glamorgan Birds if it sounds like I'm "having a go" as I appreciate people taking the time to post sightings, but when I get the opportunity to go Birding, it helps to read what's about locally and have a sporting chance of seeing it!! Rant over! ;)

btw, Can you pm me the location of the Dormice please, they would be nice to see.

Thanks Luke
 
Thanks pie, i think threads like this are good as you get all the back ground info instead of '1 spoonbill at newport wetlands this afternoon' this was all i put on the gwent sighting website.
p.s rant as much as you want, as your right about the 'ring ouzel over garden' thing?. i saw that and thaught the same.
 
Garnlydan Reservoir this evening was very quiet with only the usual 300+ gulls (lesser black backs and herring gulls) and a few mallard. Was quite suprised to still see wheatear about up there. 2 present this evening but i suspect these are probably migrants passing through?
 
This morning at the wetlands produced good numbers of waders including 330 curlew which contained 1 whimbrel and stunning summer plumaged bar tailed godwit, also 1 spotted redshank, 18 black tailed godwits, 32 knot, 15 dunlin, 12 ringed plover, 2 green sands, 2 common sands, 2 snipe, 2 greenshank, and 2 ruff. Thankfully the tides are nice and high again so it brought in most of the waders off the estuary.
Also about was a juv great black backed gull which was flying around all morning. The hedges were good aswell with 3 lesser whitethroat, 1 common whitethroat, 2 chiffchaff, 4 willow warbler, 1 reed warbler, 1 garden warbler all being seen from one point in about 40 minutes!
Possbily the highlight was a young female peregrine that almost caught one of the ruff but thankfully it got away! I was hoping we might see a marsh harrier as a male was seen hunting over the lagoon late yesturday evening. But, typically, it wasnt about.
 
luke said:
Garnlydan Reservoir this evening was very quiet with only the usual 300+ gulls (lesser black backs and herring gulls) and a few mallard. Was quite suprised to still see wheatear about up there. 2 present this evening but i suspect these are probably migrants passing through?
Click to expand...

Interested about the wheatear Luke, is this the time for them to leave the area then?
 
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