What's the Point?

The Point is the little area close to the 'seawall tea rooms' at Goldcliff, and this morning the area held the largest number of Turnstones I have recorded along this stretch of the Gwent Levels - 42 all feeding together. What a lovely surprise that was. Prior to this my friend Kerry and I had stopped off at the tea rooms for a coffee before heading up onto the seawall. Close by a Little Egret was feeding next to a Grey Heron which was taking a nap.

Kerry using my scope to watch Turnstones.

Prior to this we had been bird watching since early morning at Goldcliff. In the first hide we got talking to a local who had his young boy with him. It is always good to see the youngsters being encouraged and supported.  We were chatting about the birds of the lagoons and other topics when a beautiful male Sparrowhawk flew onto a fence post allowing us close views for several minutes.


Male Sparrowhawk. Copyright N Davies.

After saying our goodbyes, Kerry and I headed off to the other hides watching Blue Tits, Starlings, Blackbirds, Crows, Woodpigeons, Great Tit, Robin, Ravens, Magpies and a Long Tailed Tit along the way. A skein of 54 Herring Gulls passed overhead. On the one lagoon we watched good numbers of Teal and 84 Shoveler was a good number to see. Three Common Snipe were almost invisible as they huddled close to the edge of the lagoon in amongst the Sedges. A Grey Heron passed over and 4 Gadwall was nice to see.

Thankfully the rain was holding off and we made our way towards the seawall noting 6 Black-tailed Godwits along the way. At the seawall we scanned the expanse of open mud but the bird life was quite sparse. We did however find a flock of 14 Avocet out on the mudflats and 3 Grey Plovers along with 25 Common Redshanks - the best on offer today.

We made our way down to hide 3 and enjoyed our flasks of coffee and some nibbles, and where we counted a whopping 647 Wigeon on the lagoon here. Suddenly they all took flight as the light-morph Common Buzzard flew low overhead. The 'whooshing' noise from their wing was amazing. They circled and called frantically for about forty seconds before gaining the confidence to land on the water again.

Wigeon enjoying a feed prior to                                                                 being spooked by the Common Buzzard. Picture: N Davies.

Heading back towards hide 1 we stopped to watch a number of Song Thrushes feeding alongside the long hedgerow. It soon became evident there were other birds mixed in which included numerous Blackbirds, 2 Fieldfares, 3 Reed Buntings, a Dunnock, 6 Robins and 23 Meadow Pipits. It just goes to show that it is worth scanning through any flocks of birds. It had been an interesting morning's birding despite the slightly dark skies and threatening clouds, but it was nice to be out and about.

Looking across from the seawall. N Davies.
















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