sI visited Slimbridge Wetland Centre this weekend. I have not visited in a while and I was excited to see the Bewicks Swans and other overwintering bird that took shelter at the centre in this cold season. I decided it would be a good idea to visit the hides as that is the best place to see the overwintering waterfowl and waders. I was not disappointed. When I first got there I went up into the tower to have a look around, it gives a nice view of the centre and you can often see what birds are near the hides which gives you a better chance of going to the right hides to see what you want to see. At the tower I spotted what looked like 5 Common Cranes feeding in a field. Excited to see those birds from a closer distance I headed down to the hide from which it was easiest to see them.
The cranes were not the only birds in the field. They were among a large flock of many different species, including Canada Geese, lapwings, wood pigeons and a few Greylags. It is amazing to think that these Cranes are now wild birds that were introduced onto the Somerset Levels just a few years ago. A couple have come back and stay in the area just outside the centre for a large part of the year. To think these birds were once extinct in the UK and that there is now a wild population living so close is brilliant. It shows how well introduction projects can go and I am hoping that they will breed and produce a larger population for our countryside. Once we had seen all there was to see at that hide (a wood pigeon came very close to the window) we went to visit another, the rushy pen hide. From this hide I could see many overwintering birds, such as Pintail ducks, Goldeneye, Tufted ducks, Lapwings, Bewicks swans and plenty of mallards, all brought in by the thought of an easy will and a safe place to stay for the winter. I was surprised about the huge amount of pintails and loved to see the Bewicks, which as I have said in previous blogs, are one of my favourite birds. Some of the swans were paddling in the water, stirring up any bits of grain and particles of natural food that had floated down into the silt at the lakes bed. Around them were huge groups of diving ducks that waited for the swans to perform the foot paddling action of stirring up the mud, before diving down to pick up any food disturbed by the swans behaviour. I also noticed two Mute Swans in the area practicing the same behaviour, one that I had not seen before and I was intrigued. It reminded me of how gulls paddled the ground in order to bring up worms and looked similar but obviously had a very different function. It was very cold in the hide and soon I couldn’t feel my hands so we went into the indoor heated hide. I was happy we did as I could see even more wildlife at a closer distance at this hide. A lapwing walked straight up to the window, giving me the chance to take some beautiful photo’s of it up close. I have always found lapwings to be lovely birds with the huge crests on their head and their browny-green wings. I think I may have annoyed some people in the hide by accidently banging my camera against the window though… woops. I wanted to see if I could identify a swan by the leg ring but they were all currently either sitting down and resting or swimming in the lake and so no leg rings were actually visible. My dad was hungry and wanted to go to the café as well, so we could not really stay long. I had bought some grain to feed the greylags and so after eating we headed down to another part of the centre. Here there were plenty of overwintering ducks and the lakes were filled with greylags, goldeneyes and tufted ducks. I used some of my grain to feed the main swimming group which eagerly flocked towards the food and then went on to feed some greylags by hand. Often there are some mute swans in the hand feeding section but there were none today, I am guessing they were too busy competing with the other swans for the grain I had just place in the water. Unusually, alongside the usual group of greylag geese, there was a lone Canada Goose which chased all the other geese out of the way in order to get to the food in my hand. It was a rather unco-ordinated goose and ended uppecking my fingers as well as the food. The Greylags were also quite clumbsy as they were rushing to even eat a grain before they were chased off by the Canada. On Sunday in the early morning I headed off to Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean. Cannop ponds has a series of lakes where you can take wonderful photo’s while the lake remains frozen in the morning. As we were travelling through the wood I was wowed by the incredible landscape that had been created by the hawthrost, tree’s were encased in a white blanket of ice and the individual crystals jutted out like the forest had created its own mini-landscape held within the branches and leaflitter. There were forests of ice on tree’s and forests on the leaves, steam from heating matter rose up into a cold sky that was cloudless and blue as the ocean. Upon the lake a group of ducks had managed to keep a section of water thawed throughout the night. Mallards, Swans, Manderin’s, Coot’s and even two Little Grebes had remained close to the shore in an area of water that remained ice free throughout the frozen night. They may have suffered from confusion after people were throwing ice onto the ice though. (The sound it makes resonated and sounds really cool, but considering the ducks were flying towards it I think they may have thought it was food :/) There were no muscovies at the lakes that day (sadly ) but all the manderin’s and mallards were approaching people, looking for food. The two grebes were among a group of coots and were diving under the roots of a large tree that was halfway under the water. I was very surprised to see the grebes as I do not see them that often and so got some very good photographs. There was a raven calling in the tree’s. I watched it sitting on a branch above me, its large beak, body and ‘Kark’ing cry telling me which species it was. I have never seen a Raven here, so that was a surprise! There was a bird-table with many small, hungry woodland birds visiting it. They ignored me as I stood close, watching and photographing their actions. Among them were Nuthatches, blue tits, great tits, multiple squabbling robins, a male black bird, a coal tit and chaffinches. After visiting Cannop Ponds I headed up to Symonds Yat rock where my dad saw a peregrine, but I missed it. I looked took some photographs of the beautiful V shaped valley and then headed back, freezing, to the warm fire at home.
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About Me!Hello, I am a young birdwatcher and wildlife enthusiast here to talk about my interests and other things on my mind. I hope you enjoy my blog. Archives
April 2017
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