I spent all day at Slimbridge WWT with some good friends today who were staying local to the centre. It was a freezing January day but we wrapped up warmly wondering how many species we would manage to see and possibly add to our respective year lists.
There were certainly many species to see and enjoy despite the fact that many parts of the reserve were still frozen. The Rushy Pen was busy with a variety of ducks and swans when we arrived; the most noticeable being the Bewick swans and the strikingly plumaged pintails. Disappointingly the view over the tack piece did not provide the same winter spectacles I'd seen earlier in the month, as much of the flooded field was frozen but we saw several snipe not too far away from the hide and a buzzard was spending a lot time attacking what looked like a goose carcase, occasionally challenged by magpies, and crows.
At the willow hide the feeders were busy with blue and great tits and other common small birds plus a great spotted woodpecker. A dozen teal were swimming around together on a small area of water that was not frozen, occasionally venturing towards the feeders where they could find some of the seed that had been dropped underneath, slipping and sliding on the ice as they went. In the distance I caught sight of a water rail but it disappeared after only a few seconds.
The tide was in and from the Estuary tower we saw cranes plus a variety of geese, including Canada, greylag, barnacle, Ross's and a trio of snow geese (new for year). The usual large numbers of whistling wigeon were conspicuous by their absence - I assume they had gone in search of a field which was less frozen.
Having completed our tour of the Holden walkway, we stopped to warm ourselves with drinks from our flasks in the comfort of the warm Peng observatory before making our way over to the Discovery Hide. I added three birds to my year list at this point; common gull, Egyptian goose and oyster catcher.
After eating our snack lunch on the steps of the Wetland theatre, we then continued to the Zeiss hide and the South finger walkway. There was little to add to our list of sightings from the Zeiss hide but from the next hide we saw white fronted geese and golden plovers.
My friends were keen to go to the top of the Observatory where you can view the WWT centre from a high vantage point. The photos below show the great views it gave us. Afterwards we decided to return to the Rushy Pen to watch the birds return for their tea time feed. It made us smile to watch the larger ducks and geese fly down and land on the ice, and skid along a few metres before grinding to a halt, after which they had to slip and slide along the ice to where the birds were gathering to await their food.
No comments:
Post a Comment