Saturday 29th January 2012 - Slimbridge WWT

Today I went with Mark (http://doorstepbirding.blogspot.com/) down to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire. Being a Wolves supporter I thought that he may have turned up in his horse and cart...lucky for me he came in his car and we were able to get down there at a reasonable time.

On arrival we meticulously checked out the Rushy Pen to look for the Lesser Scaup that has been present over recent weeks.  There was plenty of other birds of interest though with  good numbers of Bewick's Swan, Pintail, Shelduck, Pochard and Tufted Duck present here.

It was then on to the Martin Smith Hide to view across Tack Piece.  Here there were thousands of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin and Wigeon.  Large numbers of Teal and more Bewick's Swans were observed here.  Small numbers of Redshank and Curlew were also noted.  At one point all the waders went up allowing us to see that wonderful golden sheen as the huge flock of Golden Plover twisted and turned over the Tack Piece.  There was no sign of the Lesser Scaup in this area either but we did pick up our first couple of White-fronted Geese that were feeding near some Greylag Geese.

From the Alf Garnett hide (sorry I mean Robbie Garnett hide...I can't help myself at times) I picked up on 2 Peregrines that were perched in the large trees opposite.  Ironically enough there were half a dozen Woodpigeon sat above them at the top of the tree...obviously oblivious to the danger below.

From the Holden Tower there were good numbers of White-fronted Geese and Barnacle Geese present on the Dumbles.  15 Great Black-backed Gulls were sat at the near edge of the estuary and a single Oystercatcher was noted near the tower.

Next stop was the Ziess hide, where after about 10 minutes we were lucky enough to see the Bittern.  Although not the best views of this cryptic plumaged heron I have ever seen it was a welcome sight all the same.  Also noted from this hide were 6 Black-tailed Godwits.

From the Zeiss Hide we headed over to the South Lake which was unusually quite in terms of Gulls with only c.60 Black-headed Gulls, 5 Herring Gulls and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull present.  We did however add Shoveller, Gadwall and Cormorant to the day's tally.

Before we headed off home we spent some time back at the Rushy and the Martin Smith hides looking for the elusive Lesser Scaup...we drew a blank.  I had seen the one that was present last winter but it would have been a lifer for Mark, but this was the only slight disappointment in an otherwise 'away day'.

To give you an indication of the numbers of wader and wildfowl that were present, here

are some of the day's count from the Slimbridge WWT website

Bewick's Swan  196

White-fronted Goose  280

Wigeon  2000

Teal  950

Pintail  89

Pochard 223

Golden Plover  765

Lapwing  3100

Dunlin   2100

Black-tailed Godwit  37

Redshank  25

A view from the Rushy

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Pintail (drake)

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Golden Plover

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Bittern
 


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