Trip reports

Field trip to Newport Wetlands

wikipedia

Sunday, 13 September 2009

The first field trip after the summer break was on a beautiful autumn day. We met at the lagoons at Goldcliff. A sparrowhawk and buzzard were seen overhead as was a hobby. Many house martins and swallows were feeding at the site on their way back to their wintering sites in southern Africa. There were a lot of teal and a few shoveller on the water along with good numbers of black tailed godwit, knot and dunlin. The tide was way out so many of the waders were on the foreshore including the avocets and some shelduck. On the lagoons were greenshank, redshank, spotted redshank and lapwing amongst others. Grey heron and little egret were present on the margins. Juvenile and female yellow wagtails were eventually found near the seawall where there were also meadow pipits, northern wheatear and stonechat. It was a beautiful day with the satisfaction of finding some of our target birds. Little stint were elusive, I'm not saying they weren't there but we couldn't find them, nor the curlew sandpiper