Sightings

Main sighting: Fieldfare

There have been up to 60 Fieldfares in the garden trees every day during the recent cold snap.

Main sighting: Smew

A drake Smew, 2 pairs Goldeneye, pair Goosander, 23 Mute Swans (but no Whooper) and Little Egret (in the middle of a field) this morning.

Main sighting: Chiffchaff

Surprised to see a Chiffchaff after the spell of cold weather, foraging along the lane south of the castle.

Main sighting: Woodcock

Single bird flushed from roadside at 0175hrs

Main sighting: Blackcaps

2 blackcaps. (1 male 1 female) Female viciously guarding feeders.

Main sighting: Raptors

Patches of low mist, lagoons frozen so wildfowl out on the mudflats. En-route to hides – 5 pheasants, crows, blackbirds, collard dove, woodpigeons, mistle thrush, 1 heron, magpies, robins, gt spotted woodpecker and starlings. Redshank platform – herring gulls, male kestrel, meadow pipit. Snipe platform – 1 gt black-backed gull, 2 female marsh harriers. Hedge line to sea wall – reed buntings and fieldfares. Seawall – first for me was a pair of mallard mobbing a peregrine (witnessed by 2 Steve and co from Abergavenny). Peregrine later joined by its mate. On the mudflats themselves, mix of 20 grey plovers, 13 avocet, black headed gulls, curlew, shelduck, widgeon, raven, oystercatchers and teal. Back to the car park – blue tit, great tit and a buzzard.

Main sighting: Possible Jack Snipes

Had a short walk along path that runs along a section of Usk at low tide. Spotted what I think were 3 Jack Snipe. My reasoning for jack snipe and not common snipe is: when the birds got spooked there was no alarm calling, they only travelled a short distance over the water before landing, and the birds were rather small. 2 redshank, 2 goosander (1 fem. 1 male), 1 grey wagtail, 2 pied wagtail, Lesser-BB Gulls, Black-headed gulls, 4 mallard.

Main sighting: Goshawk

Goshawk flying over grass verge/pathway about 20’ up and towards our car as we rounded a bend in wooded area between Usk and Llangybi.

Main sighting: Black Redstart

The male Black Redstart has returned to the Duckpool Road/Dean Street area of Newport for the third year in a row, though is a month earlier this year.

Main sighting: Barn owl

The 3 dead mute swans I reported over a week ago on the NRW line are still there with wildfowl amongst them, corvids feeding on them. En-route to hides – crows, 1 rook, blackbirds, song thrush, woodpigeons, house sparrows, gt spotted woodpecker, chaffinch, and a buzzard and heron in the first field. Hide 1 – plenty of activity with a pair of marsh harriers (females) hunting, 192 teal, 27 shoveler, 3 snipe, 115 wigeon, 52 lapwing, Canada geese, skylarks and 3 dunlin. Hide 2 – male kestrel calling, approx 500 starlings in the wet field amongst the sheep, magpies, moorhens, herring and black headed gulls, 2 common gulls over, raven, and a barn owl at 1050hrs hunting along the fence from hide 1 right up to the top corner, caught a rodent then flew in a straight line back beyond hide 1 and out of sight.

Main sighting: Marsh Harrier

Highlights of a morning visit to a very windy Goldcliff was 2-Marsh Harriers together and one of them later being mobbed by a Peregrine.Also a large flock of Starlings,400+,good numbers of Wigeon and Lapwings.

Main sighting: Seabirds

Watched for a couple of hours yesterday and today.
Yesterday the highlight was a distant Red Throated Diver down channel, this morning 9-11:30; 3 single Juv Kittiwake DC (1 close), an adult Little Gull dip feeding amongst Black Headed Gull and 2 Whooper Swan some way offshore heading DC. A 4th Juv Kittiwake came off the coarse fishing lake and headed across fields in the direction of Peterstone.