I drove over to Slimbridge WWT Centre this morning, as I hadn't been for a while, I knew the Kingfishers were active and had heard reports of Mediterranean gulls, both of which I hadn't managed to see so far this year.
The car park was quiet and so was the Centre itself. There was admittedly nothing particularly of note reported as the White rumped sandpiper had gone, and so had all the Bewick swans. It was cloudy to start with but it brightened up to give blue skies, although the wind was still brisk.
I decided to go up to the Estuary Tower where high tide was due, though it wasn't predicted to be as high as earlier in the week. Nevertheless, there were many birds to be seen, including large numbers of black headed gulls, amongst which I was shown a couple of Mediterranean gulls, which I initially looked at through someone's 'scope as I would never have found them myself, particularly as one was was asleep!
From the tower I could see white fronted geese, and barnacle geese with a snow/Ross goose amongst them. A snipe was in the reeds below the hide and I also saw a few pintails, wigeon and avocet.
As I walked through the grounds, I heard many chiffchaffs and spotted a Brimstone butterfly, signs that Spring is nearly sprung!
I approached the Discovery Hide, and noticed that a few people were looking intently along a stretch of water to the left - a pair of kingfishers were thought to be making a nest in the bank ( out of view) and were perched in the trees and bushes nearby. Although they were always partly obscured by twigs and branches, they gave closer views than the ones nesting in the banks viewed from the Kingfisher hide.
I visited the remaining hides and revisted some of the earlier ones, but there was nothing particularly of note today. Waders included lapwing, redshank, black tailed godwit, avocet and dunlin but I didn't see any herons or egrets. However any trip to Slimbridge is enjoyable and today was no exception, with two more birds added to my year list.
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