Sightings

Main sighting: Common Swift

Apologies late entry -2 common swift over.

Main sighting: White Wagtail

En-route to hides: pheasant, woodpigeons, blue tits, herring gulls, cormorant, heron, crows, blackcaps, blackbirds, buzzard, chiffchaffs, dunnock, moorhen, magpies, jackdaws and skylark (nice large dryads saddle fungi on rotten log just over bridge by entrance). Hide 1: 2nd heron and 4 lapwing. En-route to hide 2: willow warbler and common whitethroat in full song, cettis and raven. Hide 2: Canada geese, greylag geese, 845 black-tailed godwits and 20 bar tailed (good number here) mixed in, 12 knot also, 12 redshanks, mallards, 10 fly-by mute swans, 14 avocet, 8 teal, 1 shoveler, 2 oystercatchers, meadow pipits, 30 dunlin, female marsh harrier, reed bunting, white wagtail (male), great black-backed gull, 1 ruff, lesser black-backed gulls, gadwall pair and 1 little ringed plover. The 2 spotted redshanks are still present and starting to look very dark as they change into breeding plumage, frequenting both side of the large island and showing well. Snipe platform: pied wagtail, coot, little grebe 2 more swans, linnets and robin. Seawall – male wheatear (on wall leading down towards hide 3), 5 wigeon, 11 curlew, 2 swallows and a pair of stonechats (female carrying nesting material). Reed warbler in full song en-route to hide 3. Hide 3: shelduck, 3 male and 2 female pintail, 71 more avocet, 32 more shoveler, 15 more teal, 6 more gadwall and 2 ringed plover (no sign of pink footed goose). Back at hide 1 a pair of stock doves drinking. Other: 1 meadow brown, 2 small whites and 2 speckled wood butterflies.

Main sighting: Cuckoo

Cuckoo calling heard from the track just off the Cambrian Way just above Cwn Y Nant

Main sighting: Newport Marathon

It is the Newport Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday 13th April which means the road to Goldcliff lagoons and Uskmouth will be closed for a long period. So it might be wise to give the area a miss.

Main sighting: Sand Martin

4 Sand Martins swirling around the Wye Bridge at 2.30 today – first I have seen this year.

Main sighting: Yellow wagtail

Yellow wagtail, grey wagtail, 5 pied wagtail, 3 goldfinch, 2 ravens, 10 Chaffinch, 5 chiffchaff, 2 blackcaps, a nuthatch, 2 song thrush, a great spotted woodpecker, a green woodpecker, 3 stock doves, a kingfisher, up to 200 sand martins. 26 Canada geese, 10 greylags, 3 m 2 F goosander, a pair of mandarin ducks, 5 cormorants, a grey heron, 3 oystercatchers, a buzzard and a goshawk

Main sighting: Northern Wheatear

Wheatear 7 males and 2 females, made up of 5 solo males and 2 pairs.

Main sighting: wood warbler

wood warbler heard late afternoon in both locations

Main sighting: Fieldfare

A surprise calling Fieldfare for my early BBS visit. My first Redstarts of the year plus one Swallow and singing Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers.

Main sighting: Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper at Machine Pond, briefly joined a Cormorant and pair of Canada Geese on the floating island – a very occasional passage visitor. One Swallow picking insects off the pond, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers singing.

Main sighting: Dipper

Three dippers “flirting” on the river.

Main sighting: Little Ringed Plover

2-LRPs on the shingle bank,before seeing them there must have been 50+ Sand Martins at the river bank prospecting nest holes.3-Goosanders(2f 1m),m+f Mandarin ducks,1m-White Wagtail,1-Common Sandpiper,further along the river more Sand Martins were seen but not in the numbers previously seen.Also one more LRP sighting which could have been a third bird or one of the two seen earlier.Also my first Orange Tip butterfly of the year and a flock of 17-Cormorants flying up river.11h15-13h50.