Water Rail The winter birding months tend to be mega rarity free and I wouldn’t expect anything that would be an addition to my Uk bird list until at least April or more probably May. I find it hard to motivate myself to travel long distances for birds that I’ve seen well and photographed so the next 3 months will probably be mainly local. I had a pleasant and relaxed day at Slimbridge on Monday. I hoped to see two scarce birds that had been present for a few days, namely Little Stint and Green-winged Teal. With no pressure to get there at a particular time I rolled up just before 10:00. From the car park I immediately heard the eerie bugling of the recently returned Bewick Swans. I was, perhaps rather selfishly, pleased to find very few visitors at the reserve, the combination of a school term weekday and winter having the desired effect. I say selfishly because, of course, the WWT are largely reliant on members and visitors for funding th...