A Great Day Out at Slimbridge

With a week of annual leave and no real plans we decided to pay my sister and brother-in-law a visit in Bristol via a trip to Slimbridge on February 12th.

We left Plymouth later than planned and got caught up in a few traffic snarls along the way but we arrived at Slimbridge just before midday on a mild and mostly sunny day before David carried on to nearby Gloucester for a look around antique shops while I enjoyed some Slimbridge birding.

I started off in the Martin Smith hide where a Jack snipe has occasionally been showing well for a while now and sure enough it was there but all I could see of it was a brown and cream blob hunkered down in the green grass. Fortunately other birds were showing very well - Bewick's swans, white-fronted geese, 2 buzarrds, golden plover, lapwing, black-tailed godwit, ruff, dunlin, redshank, curlew, wigeon, teal, shoveler, shelduck, pintail, greylag geese, mallard and tufted duck with 2 common cranes seen flying over.

Jack Snipe

Wigeon

I carried on along the path towards the Holden Tower, visiting the Robbie Garnett hide and Stephen Kirk hide along the way where I managed to get much better views of the Bewick's swans, white-fronted geese and ruff out on the flooded Tack Piece field.

Bewick's Swans with Pintail and Wigeon

Bewick's Swan with Teal

Ruff with Lapwing

Pintail

There were 6 juvenile Bewick's swans amongst the adults and there was much calling and displaying going in the mild and sunny conditions as the birds begin to prepare for their migration back to Siberia.

From the Holden Tower in a surprisingly strong and biting wind there were 7 common cranes feeding out on the saltmarsh including 1 juvenile bird along with Canada and barnacle geese. A few skylark were also noted along with 2 oystercatcher and a pair of peregrines buzzing around and perching on fence posts or mounds of vegetation on the ground.

Barnacle Geese

I moved to the side of the hide overlooking the Tack Piece where I was sheltered from the worst of the wind and watched 1 of the peregrines cause complete chaos amongst the waders as it unsuccessfully chased a golden plover before moving on. A lone fieldfare feeding close to the hide was a surprise and I picked up a small flock of linnet feeding in the grass but they were too distant and flighty and mobile to pick out a twite amongst them which has been seen here recently.

Fieldfare

The lapwing, dunlin and golden plover on the Tack Piece continued to be nervous and flighty and I picked up a small falcon flying high overhead before landing in the top of a tree - a female merlin, my first sighting of one at Slimbridge. It sat in the tree top scanning around before launching into flight and dropping down low to the ground in a fast flapping flight interspersed with wings tucked in, putting up the waders, linnets, starlings and skylarks feeding out amongst the grass as it rocketed across the field. Unfortunately I lost track of it amongst the melee and I never refound it and despite the distant views it was a nice surprise to see.

Back to the Martin Smith hide where the Jack snipe was still mostly hidden amongst the grass although 5 common snipe were much more showy. The Jack snipe would occassionally wake up and show its head and bill very well before doing a few bounces and settling back down to sleep with its bill tucked under its wings. Eventually it was spooked by a moorhen passing by and it moved off amongst the grass bobbing away before it was totally lost from view - not quite the views I had hoped for but nice to see none the less.

The peregrines continued to buzz over the Tack Piece putting up the feeding birds although they didn't appear to catch anything but it was time to move on to the Rushy Pen for the feeding session with the WWT warden. I had planned to visit the In-Focus shop overlooking the Rushy Pen to have a look at the telescopes but it had closed by the time I got there so I enjoyed watching the birds on the Rushy Pen instead, watching the Bewick's swans flying in to feed on the grain including a second winter bird still  unusually showing patches of pink on its yellow and black bill.

Pintail

Bewick's Swans

Bewick's Swans 

Bewick's Swans 

Bewick's Swans 

Bewick's Swan with Mallard

David duly arrived to pick me up and we drove back to Bristol to spend the night at my sister Vik's and brother-in-law Nik's and the next morning at breakfast it was fun to watch the antics of 2 very chunky looking grey squirrels stuffing their faces on my sisters bird feeders along with nuthatch, robin, great spotted woodpecker, coal, blue, great and long-tailed tits, blackbird and magpie.

After spending the morning in Clifton admiring the suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge while visiting the nearby observatory with its camera obscura it was time to drive back to Plymouth but it had been a very enjoyable trip away - Slimbridge is always a great days birding and it was lovely to catch up with Vik and Nik.