Blue skies over Goldcliff

 

It was a real pleasure to be out in the sun and at Goldcliff this morning. I stepped out of my car to be serenaded by a Blackcap blasting out its song from a nearby bit of scrubby hedgerow.

The path leading into the reserve is bordered by a house with what I think are a species of Cherry Trees growing in its garden, which have come into blossom and look beautiful overhanging the fence.

Nev loves the smell of blossom in the morning.

Officially, today is the last day of meteorological Winter. Hooray at last. We could all do with a break from what seems like an eternity of rainy days and Seasonal Affective Disorder, inducing cloudy days.

From what the weather forecast looked like for the remainder of the week todays weather was only going to be a brief pause in what has been a very wet start to the year.

The warmth of the morning sun, another Blackcap singing a duet with a Chiffchaff, made me walk with a bounce in my step and a smile on my face. I was soaking up as much of that Vitamin D from the sunshine as I could, so it would get me through next week.

I saw several people from the Goldcliff regulars, and it was nice to catch up and say hello.

Walking out of Hide 1 towards me was my friend Nev "The Wig" Davies, wearing his safari hat. He has become quite the traveller these days, visiting Southern Africa on birding safaris, and he enthusiastically told me about his future plans to revisit the African continent later this year.

Nev and I ended up taking a walk around the reserve, checking each of the hides and platforms to see what birds were showing. There was planty of our avian friends around today, and I have the feeling that it's going to be a good year.

My main highlights today were the two Snipe that were settled in front of Hide 1.

A pair of Shoveler that gave us a flypast and looked fantastic in the golden sunlight.

Pair of Shoveler Ducks

A flock of Lapwings were up and down several times, spooked, we think, by an unsighted lurking predator. Nev had seen a Marsh Harrier and a Peregrine earlier that morning.

Lapwings

There were three Little Grebes ( Dabchicks) diving around on Priors Lagoon, and they were making one hell of a racket calling to each other.

They are feisty birds and constantly on the move.

Little Grebe

Other than these highlights, the only birds of note were some Pochard also on Priors and the White-fronted Geese that remain on the reserve. More on the Gwent Ornithological Societies Sightings Page posted by Nev.

I finished off my visit with my second stop of the morning off the reserve - at Goldcliff Point, where I put the drone up for a short flight.

Aerial view of Goldcliff

Really enjoyed the sunshine, being social with friends and the bird therapy.