Hendre Lake Wildlife Walk Sat 10th January 2026 8.00am - 9.45am

photos by Michael Field

The 8 am start was definitely worth it to watch this beautiful sunrise at Hendre Lake for our Winter Wildlife Walk last week.

With our binoculars ready, we started our walk along Faendre Reen, setting up the scope to look for birds across the fields. Hendre lake is a fantastic part of the Gwent Levels to see a wide variety of birds, some residential and some visiting over winter.

There has been some very exciting sightings here recently but we weren't lucky enough to see these few species this time. We continued our walk to and around the lake with our bird listener Lee, teaching us about the birds that we are hearing and seeing. Its always great to learn more and improve our bird call knowledge.

Using the scope, we were able to see the snipes that were resting along the peninsula. A first time for many of us. Snipes are a wading bird with long, straight bills, feeding on small invertebrates like worms and insect larvae. They like wetland, intertidal and grassland habitats. A medium sized bird with stripes on their feathers from their head. Their UK population has been declining so its fantastic that we are still seeing them here every year over winter. Hopefully, some of the work we have been doing on the island is improving the habitat for them.

Throughout the morning, we had a total of 28 birds that we saw or heard. Here's our list; Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blue tits, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits, a Jay, Coots, Moorhens, Water Rails, Magpies, Blackbirds, Crows, Snipes, Black Headed Gulls, Woodpigeons, Jackdaws, Robins, Goldfinches, Swans, Mallard ducks, Cormorants, Wrens, Sparrows, Dunnocks, Starlings, Collared Doves, a Song Thrush, Bullfinches and Redwings. There is so much to see.

Thank you to all who made the early start to join us for this very enjoyable walk. With the positive feedback we've received, we will work on trying to do more fun and educational walks like this in the future. We will be hosting a Dawn Chorus Walk too, details will be posted soon. Thank you to our member and volunteer Michael for sharing your photos with us. Thanks again to our bird listener Lee for sharing his knowledge and our Park Ranger Rhodri for organising.

Photos belong to Michael Field and CVST.