Tuesday 25th January 2022 - Slimbridge.

 

Todays day trip for the 3 Amigos was going to be too Oldbury Power Station, but late in the day it was decided to change the venue to Slimbridge as the weather forecast was for it to be cold and Slimbridge has lots of hides 2 of which are heated so its possible to arrange the day so if we get too cold we can visit a heated hide to warm up but as it transpired we didn’t need to make these visits to keep warm, just to see what birds were about.

We set off at 9am and saw the following on the way, Cormorant, Common Gull, Carrion Crow, and Magpie. Bird spotting started in earnest as we turned onto the minor road leading to Slimbridge, here we noted Collared Dove and Starling. And in the fields as we approached the centre were Lapwing, Greylag Geese, Curlew, White Fronted Geese, Black Headed Gull, Woodpigeon, and Rook. Walking from the car park Blackbird, Coot, Great Tit, Mute Swan and Mallard were all logged. In the grounds as we walked towards Peng a Pied Wagtail was on the building roof. From Peng there were lots of different species with lots of Bewick’s Swans which included many young which was great to see.

Bewick's Swan with 2 young-Slimbridge(Bath Birdwatcher)

Feral Pigeon, Pintail, Tufted Duck, Pochard Shelduck, Teal, Jackdaw, Canada Goose, Wigeon and Moorhen were all spotted. The only waders here were many Lapwing but just one of each of Dunlin and Avocet. A large flock of Golden Plover were in the distance and a Herring Gull was on one of the islands. Bryan was searching with his telescope and found a Snipe by the lower scrape. Moving on to the Martin Smith hide we added Robin, Blue Tit and Dunnock to our lists. In the hide Buzzard, 2 fly by Cranes and 2 more Snipe were seen. Robbie Garnet hide brought us a single Black Tailed Godwit and Redshank. Talking to a member of staff later in the day, he told us that most of the larger waders had moved off a few days earlier when most of the scrapes had frozen over but was expecting them to return in due course. Lots of small birds were visiting the feeders at Willow Hide but the only day tick here was House Sparrow, but 3 or 4 Brown Rats were enjoying any seed dropped by the birds. The new Estuary Tower was our next stopping point and on the way from Knott Hide Grey Heron and Gadwall were new for the day. From the Tower a large flock of Barnacle Geese were seen and with them was a Ross’s Goose which was easy to pick out with its white plumage, also in the flock was a single Todd’s Canada Goose this was pointed out to us by a WWT Staff member who was in the tower specially to point out and answer questions all very helpful. The next new sighting for the day and a bird none of us had seen before was 3 Snow Geese of unknown origin but was on the national bird sightings list, a life tick for us.  Looking from a side window David spotted a Song Thrush and while looking at it a Redwing was seen, all extra numbers for the day. Looking out over the estuary Great Black Back Gulls were on the banks of the river. We moved upstairs to the open air platform for a better view of the Snow Geese and while there a guy pointed out a bird of prey on a fence post but it was so far away he was unable to be sure what it was but when I looked at it through my telescope if flew and was unmistakably a Merlin and just before we were about to leave another guy spotted a Peregrine sat on some driftwood by the river. Lunch was calling so we returned to the car. After lunch we headed for Zeiss Hide on the way spotted a flock of Goldfinch in some Alder trees. In the wood outside Zeiss a Wren was seen, in the trees a large flock of Long Tailed Tits were passing through. From the hide the bird numbers were probably as low as I have ever seen but I was very lucky to spot a Water Rail which was so swift that I was the only one to see it. A Dark Bellied Brent Goose was found in with a flock of Canada Geese. The only new bird for the day seen from here was a few Shoveler so we moved on heading for Kingfisher Hide on the way a Green Woodpecker was seen quite a rare bird here we were told. At Kingfisher 2 female Pheasant and a Chaffinch were seen. We headed back towards South Hide and added Great Spotted Woodpecker to our lists, this proved to be the last new sighting for the day as South Hide was also very quiet for the reason mentioned earlies re ice.