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Rob and I went to Slimbridge yesterday. For them as haven’t heard of it, it’s a wildlife reserve and former home of Sir Peter Scott, who was a major force in the conservation movement.
We’d planned to camp nearby overnight and go back again today, but the weather was so rubbish we came home instead. However, we still got lots of photos. I took over 700 in fact, but have managed to pick a mere several to post here.
There may be rather a lot of pics under the cut…
Greylag Goose. Like all the birds at Slimbridge, they know nothing of Paper Bags.
Wood Pigeon. Supremely unimpressed by the weather, to all appearances.
Rook. Much underrated bird, in my opinion.
Shelduck.
Ruddy Shelduck. They seemed quite nice to me...
White-winged duck. Although all we could see of its wings were brown. Presumably white underneath...
Jackdaw. Lots of them about, taking advantage of the abundance of food available. Clever things.
Falcated duck.
Gadwall.
Phillipine duck.
Great crested grebe. One of the nice things about Slimbridge is that manyof the wild birds feel sufficiently confident to get much closer to humans than they normally would . Usually GCGs lurk just out of zoom range such that my pictures of them so far have been pixelated and unsatisfactory.
Male Hooded Merganser.
Canvasback.
Crested Screamer. Evolutionary link between geese/swans and game birds apparently - there are resemblances to pheasants in the head and feet, I think. They have sharp spurs on their wings and generally nasty disposition apparently.
Cinnamon teal.
Red shoveler.
Rob feeds the rarest goose in the world - the Hawaiian Nene. Complete with fluffy gosling.
Moorhens having a mild disagreement.
There were two pairs of them fighting like this simultaneously. It was a bit like synchronised swimmong, only with a lot more splashing and squawking ;)
Another Rook. This one was bright enough to pinch the floating food from the edge of the Eider ducks pool and even went paddling to get at it.
Me feeding the Smew (Smews?). They're quite small, as you can see by comparison to the Mallard drake on the left of the picture.
Disdainful duck is disdainful...
Female Hooded Merganser.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck.
Male Comb duck.
Ringed Teal.
Little Grebe - a wild bird and a new one for my spotter list.
Bar-headed Geese. (Well, that's where they *said* they were headed, anyway).
Male Shoveler duck
The rare and elusive Mouseduck ;)
Teeny, teeny, tiny harvest mouse. So cute!
We’d planned to camp nearby overnight and go back again today, but the weather was so rubbish we came home instead. However, we still got lots of photos. I took over 700 in fact, but have managed to pick a mere several to post here.
There may be rather a lot of pics under the cut…
Greylag Goose. Like all the birds at Slimbridge, they know nothing of Paper Bags.
Wood Pigeon. Supremely unimpressed by the weather, to all appearances.
Rook. Much underrated bird, in my opinion.
Shelduck.
Ruddy Shelduck. They seemed quite nice to me...
White-winged duck. Although all we could see of its wings were brown. Presumably white underneath...
Jackdaw. Lots of them about, taking advantage of the abundance of food available. Clever things.
Falcated duck.
Gadwall.
Phillipine duck.
Great crested grebe. One of the nice things about Slimbridge is that manyof the wild birds feel sufficiently confident to get much closer to humans than they normally would . Usually GCGs lurk just out of zoom range such that my pictures of them so far have been pixelated and unsatisfactory.
Male Hooded Merganser.
Canvasback.
Crested Screamer. Evolutionary link between geese/swans and game birds apparently - there are resemblances to pheasants in the head and feet, I think. They have sharp spurs on their wings and generally nasty disposition apparently.
Cinnamon teal.
Red shoveler.
Rob feeds the rarest goose in the world - the Hawaiian Nene. Complete with fluffy gosling.
Moorhens having a mild disagreement.
There were two pairs of them fighting like this simultaneously. It was a bit like synchronised swimmong, only with a lot more splashing and squawking ;)
Another Rook. This one was bright enough to pinch the floating food from the edge of the Eider ducks pool and even went paddling to get at it.
Me feeding the Smew (Smews?). They're quite small, as you can see by comparison to the Mallard drake on the left of the picture.
Disdainful duck is disdainful...
Female Hooded Merganser.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck.
Male Comb duck.
Ringed Teal.
Little Grebe - a wild bird and a new one for my spotter list.
Bar-headed Geese. (Well, that's where they *said* they were headed, anyway).
Male Shoveler duck
The rare and elusive Mouseduck ;)
Teeny, teeny, tiny harvest mouse. So cute!