A totally chilled out day at Slimbridge

Pintail

The end of autumn and start of winter brings a seasonal change to my birding. The mad autumn rush to drop everything and twitch a rare bird being largely replaced by the all together more leisurely and chilled pursuit of days out winter birding in my favourite spots. I am very fortune indeed to have three good winter birding sites within an hour’s drive from home.

       

Slimbridge, at least in my humble opinion, comes into its own in winter. Large flocks of overwintering wildfowl gather providing a dazzling spectacle guaranteed  to lighten up the shortest and dullest days of winter.

 

My two other favourite haunts are the winter woodlands at the Forest of Dean and Wyre Forest.  Both can be good for wintering birds with the Forest of Dean being particularly good for Hawfinches while, later in winter, the Wyle Forest is good for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.

 

On Wednesday I hence decided to dig out my thermals from the bottom of my clothes drawer and head off to Slimbridge for a winter wildfowl tonic.

 

On arrival I headed towards the wetland area near the visitors centre known as the Rushy. The birds here are remarkably confiding, providing at times ridiculously close views of wildfowl such as Pintail , Pochard and Teal with the males being particularly resplendent  in their recently acquired fresh plumage. I guess the birds are confiding for two main reasons. Firstly, they have become habituated to close contact with humans. Secondly, winter supplementary feeding is provided.

 

As an example, the many Moorhens living on our ponds are incredible wary of human contact. At the very first sight of a human, even several hundred meters away, they dash Hussain Bolt style from the pasture where they are feeding back to the cover at the pond. Compare and contrast this with Slimbridge where the Moorhens are so confiding that you have to be careful not to step on them as you are walking around!

 

Pintails, or the Northern Pintail to give it it’s proper name,  are particular favourites of mine. They have a very wide geographic range breeding from northern areas of Europe right across to  North America. They are migratory and  winter south of their breeding range and are hence very much birds of winter in England. The drake is a very striking bird  with a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white underparts. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides.

 

 

Pintail

Teal

The Common Pochard is again migratory bird with a wide Northern European range although some do breed in eastern England and the lowlands of Scotland. It is much more common in winter when it can be found in large numbers on lakes, reservoirs, flooded gravel pits and estuaries around the country. The drake is again an attractive duck with a long dark bill with a grey band, a red head and neck, a black breast, and penetrating red eyes . There are two closely related American species which had occurred in the UK a very small number of times, namely the Redhead and Canvasback, neither of which have so far troubled my UK bird list!

 

  

Shellduck

 Pochard

Also present in good numbers on the Rushy were the winter visiting Bewick’s swans. From the car park as I got out of my car I could already hear their somewhat eerie soft bugling call coming from the Rushy. They nest in Siberia and winter in the UK mainly at Slimbridge, east Anglia and Lancashire. They are the smallest UK swan and can be distinguished from the Whooper swan by the less extensive yellow markings on their bill. There seemed to be a good number of cygnets, hopefully indicating that they have had a good breeding season. The cygnets stay in family groups with the parents over the winter and the wintering family group can also be joined by offspring from previous years.

 

  

Bewick's Swan

I spent a couple of very relaxing hours in the Rushy hide photographing and watching the wildfowl before I made my way along the path to the new estuary tower where I planned to look for White-fronted Geese. There were large flocks of Greylag, Barnacle and Canada geese on the Severn flood plain but no sign of any whitefronts. A Ross’ goose was in amongst the Barnacle Geese. Sadly this is known to be an escapee and hence not tickable. I also noted a Peregrine sat on the grass and a distant fox whose wandering would occasionally put the geese flocks on mass into the air.

 

I next walked down to the Zeiss hide on the other side of the reserve on the off chance of seeing an elusive Bitten that was occasional being reported in the cut gaps through  the reed bed. There was no sign of the Bittern but an incredible vocal Water Rail and a pair of Stonechats kept all present amused for a while. The White-fronts were then located somewhat distantly on the grass. They are again winter visitors in small numbers to the UK. 

 

Come 13:00 I was getting cold and hungry and so retired to the pleasant and welcoming Kingfisher restaurant for a heartening  bowl of hot soup followed up with coffee and cake. I spent most of the  rest of the short afternoon in the various hides on the Rushy side of the reserve before making my way at 15:30 to the Rushy hide again to watch the feeding spectacle at 16:00. The wildfowl are well aware of this highlight of the day for them and gather in increasing numbers as 16:00 approaches. Real estate gets harder and harder to come by in the cramped conditions and the peace is soon broken up by neighbourly squabbles. Two Berwick families got into a right old punch-up with one held down by the neck by its aggrieved neighbour. It looked like it might end in tragedy but the victim eventually managed to escape with seemly only its pride damaged. A similar very aggressive fight broke out near the hide between two female ducks which must have carried on off and on for 10 minutes. Just after 16:00 a large wheelbarrow of grain arrived and all thoughts of a punch up with the neighbour disappeared as the wild fowl fed in a ravenous hullabaloo. The light was fading rapidly and it was hence time for my short drive home after my thoroughly chilled days birding.

 

 

Duck Wars!

 

 

 

 Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!