Slimbridge

I had a wonderful trip to WWT Slimbridge at the weekend; as a first time visitor I was blown away by the sheer scale of the reserve and the quantity (and quality) of wildfowl that it attracted. The timetabled feeds allowed a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the wild birds and I’m really pleased with some of the images I was able to take.

The hides gave excellent panoramas over the surrounding wetland, and the feeding waders and wildfowl. Watching feeding Avocets was a particular highlight (sadly too far away to successfully photograph!) and the diminutive Teal feeding along the margin was lovely to see. I was also lucky enough to happen across a pair of Gadwall from the Kingfisher Hide, which proved to be an ideal opportunity to tick this uncommon species off my photography list!

A Rook and Pigeon also presented themselves for the camera.

The evening swan feed was a marvellous spectacle, with almost too many birds to photograph, and in the failing light I did my best to capture the swans returning for dinner.

There is one further species that I was able to photograph, but as I’ve got a few images and it’s one of my favourite species of duck, I am unapologetically saving them for a further blog post.