A morning at WWT Slimbridge, with cranes

I’d forgotten that I’d promised to drive Woodpeckers to a special meeting held in a village hall in the village of Cam, about nine miles from home. We set off at 9-15am and had a delightful drive on country roads we seldom otherwise use, leaving the main Stroud valley to drive around the base of the Cotswold escarpment in the Severn Vale.

It was sunny and a charming summer’s morning and I’d considered driving to Arlingham Passage, a place where an ancient ferry crossing provided a crossing point of the tidal River Severn, used by drovers for centuries to bring cattle and other animals from Wales to England. But as I started the cross country drive Changed my mind and thought that a better idea was to go to WWT Slimbridge, where we remembers, and to enjoy watching birds. 

I had in mind to go to the hide overlooking the banks and tidal flats on the east bank of the estuary. Once again I changed my mind and walked in the other direction within the site having read that interesting birds had been seen at the South Lake. When I reached the hide there was only one other person there who immediately engaged men conversation and told me what birds he could see through his scope.

In due course a few others arrived and I chatted with some of them. We all shared information on what we could see and tried to help each other identify birds, Very soon I was shown where a avocet was sitting on a small island in the lake with two chicks wandering about beside it. It was a long way away but wanted to record such an unusual siting of those young avocets. A few oystercatchers flew over the lake and then landed on an island. Soon one of them came into the shallows relatively close to the hide bending don to feed through its long curved bill.

There was a commotion when nearly all the hundreds varied birds on the lake flew up and about with loud squawking. One of the other people managed to snatch a shot of a raptor which someone finally identified as a buzzard, and unfortunately not a harrier or a peregrine.

I heard an unusual call which made me look up to see a group of cranes flying north-east. I eventually counted nine, although two of them flew separately and actually land on the far shore of the lake. I’ve decided to blip a few of the cranes, and as they were scattered I couldn’t include them all in one frame. It isn’t often you see them all flying overhead together, even though many of them are resident at Slimbridge. I once blipped five cranes flying over me as I walked on the banks of the River Severn about five miles north of here.

I left the hide and decided to visit the otters that have been re-introduced in a newly designed compound where I think they are subjects of research on their behaviour. At 11-30am each morning they are publicly fed by a warden, which I’ve attended before. Unfortunately the new design incorporates very thick plastic shields which are used to prevent the public from being in contact with the otters but allow the to be observed while the warden educates the public with interesting facts about their lives. The original three otters were a North American species, whereas the current pair, Sam and Tilly, are a pair of Asian small-clawed otters that came from the New Forest Wildlife Park two summers ago, as reported by the BBC. 

I’ve added a couple of ‘Extras’ showing some of the birds, so do have a look.