The current lockdown has meant that so far this year I've not been able to see any of our winter visiting swans population; usually visits to to Slimbridge in January will give me Bewick swans and a visit to East Anglia will provide Whooper swans. I therefore decided to follow up reports of a few whooper swans feeding with a flock of mute swans in a field near Castle Eaton and the river Thames.
I had a close look at my OS map and from my knowledge of the area worked out where I might be able to park, close to an entry to the Thames path. There was one other car in the layby I chose, located near a road bridge over the Thames and I could see the owner was fishing off the bank. It's not an area I've really walked before, despite its close proximity to home.
I followed the Thames Path signs and crossed a couple of fields and wooden bridges till I was able to see in the distance some white objects in the fields. As I got closer, I could make out the swan flock, but not the beaks clearly as some were quite distance from the path. I therefore turned off to follow a hedge line which would run past the field in which the swans were feeding. Through the gap in the hedge I eventually made out just one Whooper swan amongst good numbers of mutes. Turning back to the main path, I noticed a little egret fly in and land in the vegetation next to the river. l couldn't see it from where I stood so walked as silently as I could until I got a glimpse of its white head. As expected, it was wary of my movement and immediately flew off but it had just given me an extra year tick.
Being overcast and quite cold, I returned to my car the way I had come, with the thought that I would like to do this walk on a spring or summer day.
River Thames
River Thames
mute swans in the field
whooper swan
sa concealed little egret
off it went!
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