Well this past Saturday, I decided to have some me time, headed down to Slimbridge WWT. Having seen the weather forecast and it was going to be cold but bright I was thinking that it would just be the die hard twitchers and a few others. I could not have been more wrong, not sure why considering it cold and the wind was biting, but I got down there around 10:30 and the place was packed, must have been featured on TV or some such, lots of children and parents with buggies even a couple of coach parties.
My plans for a quite wader around the reserve just me and a few others, in the quiet, listening to the birds and gathering my thoughts was busted. One good thing was that I was able to bypass the queue to get in by walking straight past to the members desk. Well after buying a bag of grain I high tailed it out towards the hides away from the main reserve only to find them packed as well as there had been a sighting of a Bittern (wading bird that is brown and black). After watching for a while I decided to head back and stop off at one of the feeder stations, these are small areas where they have bird feeders and attract a lot of what you would call “Garden Birds”.
It would appear that there is an error with my big big lens that has just gone out of warranty but managed to get a few nice picks, the one above of a Robin is one of my favourites from the day and you can see in a higher resolution on my flickr stream.
After leaving the feeding station I did the normal wandering round, trying to block out the other people, my mind thinking on many things, taking some time to sit down and feed with the Hawaiian Geese (one of the only birds there I will let eat the grain from my hand, and with a lovely temperament).
Everyone there is so concerned with the amazing selection of rare or foreign birds they sometimes over look the ones that they see every day, next time you see a Wood Pigeon, just take a moment to really look at it, the colouring on the neck of iridescent greens and and blues,the way they change as they move. Another favourite shot from the day as this one.
OK I know I was banging on about the colouring and this is in Black and White, but I am entering the company photo competition this month and the theme is Black and White. Higher Resolution.
Of course being at a Wetlands reserve there were lots of the evil ones Swans, ok their not evil, just can be bad tempered.
