Please do not post reports of nesting birds or sightings of rare or Schedule 1 breeders. Sightings which might lead to disturbance will be removed.

Sightings

Neville Davies

Goldcliff Lagoons

Sat 21st Sep 2019

Main sighting: Spotted Redshanks

Dawn to mid-morning visit highlights – 5 chiffchaffs, 8 lt egrets, 156 teal, 4 shoveler, 2 herons, 1 buzzard (light-phase bird), 48 sand martins with 26 house martins and 248 swallows passing through together, another passage of meadow pipits with 148 counted and 14 skylarks, 1 cettis calling, green woodpecker yaffling, only 1 ringed plover and no dunlin, 3 ruff, 2 spotted redshanks feeding together, 2 greenshanks, 9 snipe, 56 lapwing, 7 yellow wagtails, 2 white wagtails in with numerous pieds, 9 black-tailed godwits, female kestrel, male sparrowhawk, glossy ibis made a brief appearence before going out to the mudflats, kingfisher, black swan, pair of stonechats, 1 wheatear, 62 knot and a male peregrine. Mudflats: 2 gt b b gulls, 68 curlew and 62 oystercatchers. Other: 1 painted lady, 2 red admirals, 2 speckled woods, common darters and numerous migrant hawkers. Likely candidate for a great-white egret flying across to the Pill but not enough time to confirm ID – size right, kinked neck, slwoer wing beats etc but could not see the bill for positive ID sorry.

Neville Davies

Goldcliff Lagoons

Thu 19th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Water rail

Dusk visit. Fairly quiet but highlights included 6 chiffchaffs, female kestrel hunting, 44 lapwing, 4 yellow wagtails (including a juvenile), 2 herons, small passage of swallows and meadow pipits, 3 ruff, skylarks, 6 snipe, black swan, 1 greenshank, juvenile water rail with the snipe, 2 turnstone in with the lapwing, cettis calling and 3 lt egrets. Seawall – 1 wheatear with 600+ black-headed gulls on the mudflats, 87 knot, 170 black-tailed godwits and a surprising 17 avocets. Other: 1 red admiral, 1 painted lady, several male and female common darters and 18 migrant hawkers.

Chris Forster Brown

Llanbadoc

Thu 19th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Little grebe

Returned to Llanbadoc church area early this morning. Two winter plumage little grebes present. Spoke too soon about pied-billed. Some (a lot) of compensation in the form of three otter swimming downstream in synchronised fashion. One of them then fishing close to the near bank. Short trip to Goldcliff Lagoons, where three yellow wagtail, single wheatear, small numbers of dunlin, single turnstone, sparrowhawk, two kestrel and glossy ibis. The last was feeding close to a little egret some distance away on the saltmarsh down channel.

Roger Price

Peterstone Gout

Thu 19th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Linnet

Flock of c300 Linnet feeding on stubble, 30 Goldfinch, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, 4 Lgrt, 2 Heron, a few Swallows N.E.

Blair Jones

Goldcliff Lagoons

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Black Tailed Godwits and Knots

Late evening visit before sunset. Priors had a small number of Black Tailed Godwits, Lapwing and Knot initially. As it was low tide most shore birds out on the mud. Flock of Black Tailed Godwits 100c, Knot 100c and Oystercatcher 60+ feeding on mude. Lots of Curlew tonight 300c also on mud. Hundreds of Shelduck. Wheatears showing well on the wall and a Sparrowhawk narrowly missed one I was photographing. Meadow Pipits all feeding near Snipe Platform. Lots of Dragonflies about – Common Darter and Migrant Hawker. Red Admiral Butterfly.

Chris forster brown

Llanbadoc

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Grebe?

Went to look at the reported grebe at Llanbadoc. Only had 8×30 binns so not sure but there was sometbing of the pied-billed about it. Going back tomorrow early with scope.

Iain Crawford

Llandegfedd reservoir north end

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Redshank

A redshank, 3 herons, 130 canada geese, 80 blackheaded gulls, 200+ herring and lbb gulls, 55 cormorants and 2 great spotted woodpeckers.

Simon James Bedford

Newhouse Chepstow

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Hobby

Flock of over 20o starlings on Transmission tower plus Sparrowhawk female hunting the stragglers .Juv Hobby and wheatear female .

Mike andJackie Pointon

Goldcliff Lagoons

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Mediterranean Gull

The opening of the Snipe platform went well and was most enjoyable. Birds seen included a Mediterranean Gull an adult insecting over the platform with BHG’s, Marsh Harrier Sparrowhawk Kestrel Peregrine Buzzard Spotted Redshank 1 Ruff 2 Avocets Black-tailed Godwit Knot Dunlin Great White Egret Yellow Wagtail Pied and White Wagtail several Chiffchaffs Lots of Swallows and House Martins. Others: Clouded Yellow Common Darter ++

Iain Crawford

Llanbadoc

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Slavonian grebe

Small longnecked winter plumage grebe by church, either Slavonian or blacknecked. Elusive, dives out of sight.
Also 130 canada geese downstream with two grey wagtails, buzzard, heron, two cormorant, a female goosander, a green woodpecker

Simon James Bedford

Black Rock

Wed 18th Sep 2019

Main sighting: Passage

At least 40 “green warblers” including one Wood warbler Chiffchaff and Willow warbler in picnic area bushes also 2 spotted Flycatcher and 63 redshank on rocks at high tide .

John Lawton

Goldcliff Lagoons

Mon 16th Sep 2019

Main sighting: 8 Great White Egrets

I was on leaving the sea wall having been photographing a Wheatear and had a last scan with the bins over Bec’s lagoon. At the far end there was a large gathering of Egrets and as I scanned them I could see their yellow bills. There were 8 of them!!
I managed to get photos and video before they departed in a S/SE direction. (Photos on the Facebook Gwent Birders page) What I didn’t know at that time was that they’d relocated to Prior’s on the other side of the reed bed and were now in front of the Marsh Platform. As I approached the screen I could see them below me but they must have detected movement and moved down to the Snipe platform end. When I got down there and before I got anywhere near the screen they took off again heading back towards the sea wall hide. So nervous! The water level is as low on Bec’s as it was last year on Prior’s so maybe not as attractive for them as it could be.

Next event

Sep
14
Sat
2024
7:30 pm Indoor Meeting -The River Birds ... @ Goytre Village Hall
Indoor Meeting -The River Birds ... @ Goytre Village Hall
Sep 14 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Indoor Meeting -The River Birds of Gwent Steph Tyler @ Goytre Village Hall
Stephanie Joy Tyler MBE, also known as Steph Tyler, is a British ornithologist, zoologist, naturalist, conservationist, and author from Monmouthshire. She is[...]