To celebrate the end of her school term Helena suggested we drive to Slimbridge Wildlife and Wetlands centre this afternoon.  The weather was perfect for bird watching with sunshine and clouds providing varied light but without the strong winds we'd had for the last twenty-four hours.

Helena wanted to go to the feeding of the Bewick swans at dusk so we wandered about the various ponds and other bird habitats.  There weren't too many other visitors so that it was easy to get close to the birds in the more protected enclosures.  The sounds of their songs and calls seemed to fill the air, except for the occasional helicopter flying about in the distance. 

We spotted the otter pond which we'd visited last time we came here.  We decided to walk around the paths to go there again as we could see there were very few people.  When we arrived one of the staff members talked to us and said that we had missed the official feeding session for the otters and then suggested a place where we could stand on a small wall to avoid having to take photographs through the glass screens.  Once we had climbed up, he came past again and said that he would get some more food to give to the otters, which would ensure they'd come up close to where we were. A few minutes later he returned and threw some food on to the bank beside the pond and the three otters quickly came over to eat. We thanked the man for this bonus and he said he likes to give them a treat anyway.  This picture shows one of them having just shaken its fur to get rid of excess water.

I love to see otters and I once spotted two of them swimming in the sea outside Helena's mother's house beside Loch Etive.  We also saw two relatively tame otters at a fete near Stroud, when a local woman who rears them brought them to show.  The three otters at Slimbridge are not native to the UK, but come from North America, and they are more easily trained to appear for the public.  

We then walked on around the centre and saw flamingos, a couple of cranes and countless geese and ducks.  But it was the swans that we were here for.  When the time came for the big feeding session we weren't disappointed as many of them flew in and landed in front of the windows of the hide where we all gathered.  A member of staff explained about the birds, their habits and their migrations before he went out wearing a radio microphone and started to feed all the hundreds of birds who gather here every day at the same time.  In the distance we could see some of the massive flocks of birds such as lapwings, pintails and plovers who feed out on the Severn estuary.  I want to come back and walk out to the farthest edges of the centre's grounds to see these massed gatherings from other hides.  We may be back before the holiday period is over because it doesn't cost us any more as we are members.