NEW YEAR AT SLIMBRIDGE WWT

I ended  2022 having seen 171 bird species, a personal record. Today being   2nd January and a bank holiday, was an ideal day to visit Slimbridge WWT to begin my year count all over again. It was a sunny but quite chilly day and on arrival at the centre's car park  at around 10.15, I saw it was filling quickly. 

The hides were already fairly full with birders and this remained the case throughout four hours I spent there. However, for the most part it wasn't necessary to wait long before a space became available. 

On the Rushy Pen there were still good numbers of Bewick swans, together with the usual duck species and a cape shelduck (hybrid). From the estuary tower I could see Canada, Greylag and Barnacle Geese together with a snow goose. The white fronted geese were out of sight and I didn't hear of their whereabouts during my visit. Hopefully they may still be around for my next visit. Below the tower, I was  shown a water rail so I was pleased about that, as the one usually seen from the Willow Hide wasn't around. 

I made the rounds of the other hides and managed to acquire a total of over 40 birds, though nothing out of the ordinary was around today.