A visit to friends in Somerset gave us a chance to stop off at WWT Slimbridge where we hoped we would be able to see some Cranes. As it happened we dis manage to see a pair of Cranes but also got a number of other year ticks.
We arrived at the reserve just after it had opened and in time to get the first Safari trip around the reserve of the day. We had dome this before and found it very interesting because we were taken around parts of the reserve that are not normally open to the public. This time, unfortunately, we got the most boring guide in the world who seemed to have zero interest in birds and kept stopping the land rover, tipping us out to look inder cirrugated iron sheets for whatever was hiding there. Of the four sheet she turned over, zero wildlife was to be found so we got very bored with it.
As we were driving around we saw a Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard, neither of which she saw. We stopped at the old shooting hut which had been rennovated and she wanted everyone to pile in and be spoken to about it (Covid ????) I didn’t fancy the close proximity to others or any more of her grating voice so I stayed outside and climbed up the slope to get a view of the Severn estuary. Looking back along the reserve I saw a couple of Cranes – distant but clearly Cranes. I mentioned this to the guide when she came out of the hut but she didn’t deem it interesting enough to tell any of the other passengers!
We drove on and the driver and his assistant, both wardens rather than volunteer guides, came more into the picture. We drove up on to a path that gave us a view down to the estuary and on a perch was a bird that we thought at first was a Buzzard but on examination of it as it few off and also looking at some photos a couple of other people had taken of it, it seemed like there was a good possibility that it might have been a Goshawk. Of course our guide had nothing to say about this except that the Forest of Dean was not too far away and that Goshawks were to be found there. THe wardens thought it was a good possibility but it ended up being too far away, even with scopes, to really see it well enough to be sure. A bit of a disappointment as, if it was a Goshawk, it would have been one of the closest sightings I have had.
There was less doubt about another bird – a very white Buzzard perched ona pole nearby. We also got views of a couple of Hobbys flying over the reedben hunting Dragonflys. So that was two good year ticks in the bag but that was about it for the Safari. A better guide who was more interested in birds would have been better.
The remaining year ticks were got at the Discovery hide overlooking South Lake where we got a confusing mixture of waders. There were Ruff in various plumages and colours but another couple of birders coinfirmed what I had suspected; there was a Green Sandpiper and a Wood Sandpiper among them. Also, on the mud a pair of Little Ringed Plovers. The Ruffs, Sandpipers and Plovers were all good year ticks making a toal of six year ticks in a day.
At the Rushy Pen we got Avocets, Shelduck, Little Grebe and Great White Egret.
That was about it for us as by that time it was time to get back to the Tudor Lodge to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. Swallows and House Martins and House Sparrows greeted us back there.