Today was probably my last visit of the year to Slimbridge WWT, unless something mega interesting turns up in the final two weeks of the year.
Rain was forecast for the afternoon, so I planned to get there soon after opening time, to make the most of the dry, although overcast, weather.
My main interest today was to find a water rail and some white fronted geese, as I missed both of these at the beginning of the year, due to lockdown.
I started, as I always do, by looking in at the Rushy Hide. This was probably the busiest place of all today, with quite a few of the Bewick's swans still present after their morning feed. Many pintails and shelducks were also to be seen, as well as shovelers, mallard, tufted ducks and pochards. A lone avocet could also be seen feeding towards the back of the ponds.
A visit to the Willow hide provided me with the first of my target birds; a water rail was already picking up seed from the bird feeding areas and stayed around for a while. I stayed to watch though it would probably be around for much of the day intermittently. There were also several teal present.
Many of the other hides were relatively quiet, so I made my way to the other end of the reserve, hoping to find some geese. From the kingfisher hide only a few Canada geese were to be seen, although there was a large flock of golden plover flying around overhead. There have been some brent geese present recently but these were not currently visible. Someone kindly enquired if I'd seen the whitefronts, which I hadn't, so I was pleased when they told me that they could be seen from the neighbouring hide, which I had passed by, but by looking back over the reserve rather than out to the estuary. I soon found them along with some greylags, so that was my second tick of the day.
With plenty to do back home, I decided to end my visit slightly earlier than usual and head home.
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