Slimbridge WWT (Thursday 18th October 2018)

Zoo Trip #66

I spent today at Slimbridge. I didn't see the whooper swan that has been there recently - it would have been my first. Apparently the volunteers are glad it's moved on as they are bigger and bolshier than the Bewick's swans and drive them away, as they have done at Martinmere WWT. I did see a greenshank, a ruff and a snipe, alongside the many birds that live and visit there, and had a very informative chat with one of the experts at the South Lake hide. This was the very last picture I took there, taken at a swan feed at the Swan Lake. There is one Bewick's among the mute swans in the foreground of the Blip (a couple more in the background).

I spent half an hour beforehand at the Sharpness and Gloucester in Slimbridge, had a picnic and looked at the swans, cygnets and narrowboats.

L.
18.10.2018 (2333 hr)

Blip #2778 (#2528 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.60-18.3.10)
Consecutive Blip #000
Blips/Extras In 2018 #220/265 + #73/100 Extras)
Day #3129 (610 gaps from 26.3.10)
LOTD #1920 (#1761 + 159 in archived blips)

Slimbridge series
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust series
Swan series
Gloucestershire series

Sharpness and Gloucester Canal, Slimbridge, 18 October 2018 (Flickr album of 19 photos)
Slimbridge WWT, 18 October 2018 (Flickr album of 71 images)

Taken with Pentax K-1 Mark II and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300 mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens.

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Bob Dylan - You're a Big Girl Now (Take 2) (recorded 16-17 September 1974, New York)
On my way home from Slimbridge I stopped off to pick up a copy of Uncut, out this day. It had a cover CD called Bob Dylan - The Best Of The Bootleg Series, containing tracks from Dylan's past that hadn't previously officially seen the light of day. The series title of these official releases is ironic since it was Dylan's fans that had begun releasing these things on illegal bootleg albums, sparking a whole new phenomenon.
You're A Big Girl Now was recorded in New York for his forthcoming album Blood On The Tracks but at the last minute, after some test pressings had been made, Dylan re-recorded five of the songs in Minneapolis in sessions with local musicians produced by his brother David Zimmerman, including this one. An overdubbed version of a New York take of the song appeared on Biograph in 1985 and all versions will be on the next in the Bootleg Series, More Blood, More Tracks, next month, with this track previewed on the Uncut CD.