My First Visit to Slimbridge

I had a fantastic day at Slimbridge, my first ever visit there. And when Dawn and I left Swindon with wall to wall blue sky and the sun burning down, we both felt pretty good. I hadn't realised just how close Slimbridge is to Swindon, 45 minutes isn't that long in the car, and as we headed up the A419/417 towards the M5, we were feeling pretty optimistic about our trip there. But just like most things in life, we came back down to earth with a bump.

It's very rare that I head south from junction 11A, 99.9% of the time I'm heading north to visit family in Shropshire. Had that been the case the blue sky and sun would have continued. However we weren't and as we took the slip road south, so big black clouds greeted us, and the rain began to fall.

In fact apart from when we were about to leave, the rain came down for most of the day. The Bristol Channel and River Severn, must act like a funnel, as all the wet weather seemed to be drawn up through this part of the southwest.

But as it transpired, the reserve is so well laid out with hides galore we managed to escape the inclement weather and hardly had a drop of rain on us. The only drawback though, was not having particularly good light for photography, but this was more than compensated with the fantastic views you have here, as you look across pools, grazing fields and the Severn estuary which hold an amazing number of bird species.

Below are a few of the images I took including 4 Common Cranes and a 1st winter female Greater Scaup. The Scaup has been on the South Lake for quite some time, but moved onto Rushy Lake today. On the same bit of water was supposedly a Pochard x Ferruginous duck, however after a couple of visits it was obvious that it was no longer on this pool.

3 of the 4 Common Cranes present today

From left to right - 1st winter female Greater Scaup, drake Tufted Duck and a female Tufted Duck

Swan Lake with the Visitor Centre behind

One of the 86 Bewick's Swans on the reserve.

3 Pintails in the rain

Pintail

And one in flight

A drake Shoveler

A drake Teal

and a female Teal

One of the 2777 Lapwing counted here today

A 3rd winter Herring Gull

And a few of the rest of the Best

Caribbean Flamingoes

Eider Duck

Two Redshank

Avocet and Redshank

Two Ruff

A drake Tufted Duck with tuft

A drake Lesser Scaup

And finally a female Lesser Scaup

Birds Recorded: Cormorant, Grey Heron, Bewick's Swan, Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, White-fronted Geese, Barnacle Geese, Canada Geese, Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Greater Scaup, Pochard, Moorhen, Coot, 4 Common Crane, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow and Chaffinch.

Captive, Ornamental, other: Caribbean Flamingo, Hawaiian goose (Also called Nay Nay), Lesser Scaup, Eider, Avocet, Ruff, Redshank,