Monday 18th
February, not Tuesday because I’m on library duty on Tuesday. Chris
and I leave early for our deferred trip to Slimbridge.
I always find WWT sites a bit pricey, and
you certainly want to have a full day there to justify the concessionary rate
of £11.45. ( I still cannot understand
why it is £12.60 if you pay under Gift Aid…. Yet I must pay a bit MORE, to
enable WWT to get some more – the tax. Surely my signing the tax claim document
gets them some more, without increasing the cost to me. Oh well, one day someone will explain it to
me).
The car park at Slimbridge is
choca, which being half term is perhaps not surprising. I start with a portable coffee, and we set off for Rushy Pen. Not very evident on the sightings board,
perhaps because they are expected and taken for granted, I’m pleased to see plenty of handsome Pintails.
The Pen also has our first sightings of a
small number of Bewick Swans.
Moving on to the Tack Piece, the
area is awash with masses of birds including plenty more Bewicks. I often find here in particular, that the
birds are conspicuously grouped together by species. The obvious one is the
most active of the species, Lapwings. As we all know, if one or two start the
stampede, all the Lapwings follow. And on what was one of their nervous days, we saw this repeatedly.
Redshanks are sleeping together, and the Black tailed Godwits have their own private party!
Not straight away but later we saw
the stampede of Lapwings being joined by a small flock of the lovely Golden Plover. Both
Plovers land at the same time, and apart from the odd one or two, they settle
in 2 distinctly separate group. As a golden rule, I always watch groups in
flight quite carefully and as sure as eggs, Starlings have joined with the
Lapwings. In flight, their relatively smaller shape is quite distinct compared
with the Lapwings, and we also see another distinctive group in the Lapwing
flock .. Dunlins have joined the gang!
Disappointingly, there were no raptors
in evidence today and unfortunately no sign of the reported Jack Snipe. But our due diligence did enable us to
see a good number of White Fronted Geese.
Out on the edge of the Severn and
viewing from the Holden Tower, we managed to find up to 6 Cranes, although we
were somewhat hampered by 6 artists on a
drawing course monopolising the viewing windows.
After lunch, we checked out the
remaining hides down the Western Arm and at South Lake with more of the same,
and nothing to add to the year list.
A couple of photos birds in pens, just to prove that we were there.
First, the lovely cooing Eiders.
No, no Jack Snipe in this lot.
However, at 3pm we just happened
to be walking passed a pool and enclosure and gathered from the large gathering
of predominantly children that it was feeding time for the Otters. So, we
watched too!
An interesting commentary kept
everyone interested, and the food was dropped in the water in the closest spot
for the children to get good views. We
were told that the adult female (Flo) had come from a zoo/reserve and it was
only afterwards that they discovered she was pregnant and subsequently gave
birth to twins (Minnie and Ha-Ha.)
………… and that dear reader is all
from a very quiet week bird-wise. All the
rest of the week has been devoted to writing a lengthy legal report, only broken by running
a public quiz for the Friends of Markeaton Park on Saturday night. (Included 4 questions about birds!!!)
I just hope I get out for some
birding later this week, with Tuesday week at Frampton Marsh being something to
really look forward to.
Happy Birding
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