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| Two of the nine Little Grebe on Tredegar House Lake |
New years day is traditionally the day when active birders get stuck in to their new list. For me its new years eve that's historically my day out. Having developed a taste for urban birding it was Tredegar House Lake and River Usk in Newport Town Centre that were the initial venues on my list.
Having neglected Tredegar House over recent months I decided this would be my first stop off. Naturally, being the end of year holiday period the site was very popular, especially for dog walkers. It seemed that those without a dog in tow were the exception. Throwing and retrieving the ball from the lake was very popular and another couple had some type of automatic ball launcher that looked like a gun and sounded like an air rifle.
The lake supported a healthy population of black-headed gull one of which carried a Dutch ring. Previously this site was good for Mediterranean Gull but scanning the flock none were present. What was evident though was the changing head plumage of the black-headed gulls. Several were now starting to obtain their summer head plumage. Other notables on the lake were nine little grebe and six tufted duck. I moved on.
Having neglected Tredegar House over recent months I decided this would be my first stop off. Naturally, being the end of year holiday period the site was very popular, especially for dog walkers. It seemed that those without a dog in tow were the exception. Throwing and retrieving the ball from the lake was very popular and another couple had some type of automatic ball launcher that looked like a gun and sounded like an air rifle.
The lake supported a healthy population of black-headed gull one of which carried a Dutch ring. Previously this site was good for Mediterranean Gull but scanning the flock none were present. What was evident though was the changing head plumage of the black-headed gulls. Several were now starting to obtain their summer head plumage. Other notables on the lake were nine little grebe and six tufted duck. I moved on.
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| Dutch ringed Black-headed Gull at Tredegar House Lake |
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| Black-headed Gull developing summer head plumage |
Along the Riverfront in Newport Town Centre I was greeted by a long line black-headed gull standing expectantly on the promenade railings. None were carriyng rings. Disappointingly the number of larger gulls were very low. But a scan of those present revealed the long standing adult yellow-legged gull.. This bird eventually left headed northwards.
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| Adult Yellow-legged Gull, Riverfront, Newport |
Leaving Newport Town Centre I wanted to check the flooded field that has been present on the River Usk floodplain just south of Caerleon for a number of years. On the way my eye caught sight of a large flock of c250 black-headed gull feeding on the waterlogged playing fields at St Julians. I made a quick detour to track down this flock of gulls parking close to Newport bowls club. Due to more dog walkers the birds were frequently disturbed but they alighted long enough to pick out an adult Mediterranean gull. Satisfied there was nothing more to see, I returned to my car to check the flooded field at Caerleon on my wat home.
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| Adult Mediterranean Gull on playing fields at St Julians, Newport |
As the Caerleon field is not accessible the only known way of viewing it is from the St Julians road and then scoping through the vegetation. Amongst the smattering of birds were c100 lapwing, 2 wigeon, c20 Teal, 3 shovelar, a common gull and an adult yellow-legged gull.
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| Adult Yellow-legged Gull on flooded field south of Caerleon |
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