Dramatic Skies At Newport Wetlands

Huzzah! It's stopped raining!

I managed to get out of the house for only the second time since New Years Day.

For the first time since putting my back out I managed to carry the scope around. I'm happy to report that all my bits are still in fine working fettle.

I went to Goldcliffe Lagoons first. The first time I visited there since just before our wedding day, and oddly enough the last time I took the scope out.

It was a bit gloomy when I got there, and the lagoons quite quiet, but within half an hour I had ticked off nine new species for my year list (Shelduck, Collared Dove, Teal, Widgeon, Heron, Curlew, Pintail, Lapwing, Canadian Geese). The Heron was sat not far from the hide preening himself, before settling down for forty winks, I guess all like any good fisherman (as I am sure Mr Fisherking will confirm).

A lovely group from a birding club joined me in the hide, and I had a nice time chatting to them, pointing out all the birds I had seen before they arrived. The two Curlew were showing particularly well quite close to the hide, and I got some fantastic views of them feeding, quite fascinating to watch them probing around in the mud. (Believe me, there is a lot of mud at Goldcliffe at the moment).

From there, I drove up the Wetlands reserve proper, where I bumped into Emma, whom I helped with a RSPB bucket collection before Christmas.

The bird life was fairly quiet, plenty more Teal, Pochard, Tufted Ducks on the lakes. I managed to spot a small flock of Linnets, which was a life tick for me. My bogey bird from last, the Green Woodpecker, was ticked off nice and early this year as well as a few others. But then we were blessed with this incredible sunset.

This photo is straight from the camera, RAW to JPEG conversion. Not one ounce of editing, not cropped, not tweaked. I could do nothing more to it to do the sunset any more justice .. simply breathtaking.

I had one more amazing piece of luck whilst walking back to the car ... how come all your best spots are always as your are leaving?

This fox was sat, as bold as brass, on the small tump of grass by the car park. I was in a flap, as I was holding a box of 3.5kgs of buggy nibbles, and couldn't get at my camera. That picture was oh so nearly my blip entry, but the sunset had to win through in the end.

A great ending to a simply great day ... I may head down to the seaside tomorrow, not been down to Ogmore for ages.