WWT Slimbridge- 15th February 2016

It's half term this week, so I traveled down to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's Slimbridge reserve with my nephew and his friend on Monday. We saw lots of great birds (as always), including ten "year ticks", one of which was also a "lifer".

The first stop on the journey was a small pond on the outskirts of Gloucester (Horsebere Pool). Two male Penduline Tits had been present here for a couple of weeks. We arrived on site and were lucky enough to see 1 of the birds within about 10 minutes. The bird was feeding on the Reedmace in the corner of the pond. I managed to get it in the binoculars for about 30 seconds (!), before it disappeared, never to be seen again. A very smart little bird and my second "lifer" of the year. No photos of my own unfortunately, but here's a link to the BirdGuides website, where there are some super shots. Also present here were 2 Chiffchaffs, a male and a female Stonechat, Robin, Long-tailed Tit and Reed Bunting.

Moving on to Slimbridge, we spent about four hours looking around the reserve, adding another 9 "year ticks" to the Year List, along with hundreds of commoner birds, including Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard, Canada and Greylag Goose, Lapwing, Dunlin and Golden Plover.

Pintail

Crane, Pintail, Lapwing and Wigeon

Year List update:

102 - PENDULINE TIT (lifer)

103 - Stonechat

104 - Black-tailed - Godwit

105 - Shelduck

106 - Pintail

107 - Common Crane (4 colour ringed birds)

108 - Scaup (2 females)

109 - Avocet

110- European White-fronted Goose (7)

111- Barnacle Goose (100+)

112 - Bewick Swan