Christmas preparations

I visited the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, Gloucestershire, the week before Christmas.  I was a beautiful day, but that meant that the light was rather harsh and challenging.  Here are some of my images from that day.  These are all the ‘wild’ ones; birds in the reserve’s collections will feature in next week’s posting.

Pintail

Bewick's Swan

 

Teal

Common Crane

These are two of the Crane that hatched at Slimbridge, were hand-reared by staff dressed as Crane, and reintroduced into the wild on the Somerset Levels as part of the Great Crane Project.  None ever flew at Slimbridge and their final rearing was on The Levels.  However, it seems as if they had set some initial GPS-coordinates whilst at Slimbridge.  It wasn’t long before some of them were making trips back to Gloucestershire.  This pair decided to stay and nested last year.  They had one egg.  It hatched, but the chick survived for only a few days.

Greylag Goose

Wigeon

Buzzard

Black-head Gull

Grey Heron

Three days before my visit to Slimbridge I had met a friend for lunch at the National Trust property, Polesden Lacey, Great Bookham, Surrey.  The property is situated in the Mole valley, although the house and estate are in an elevated position.  I mention this because the valley has been subject to devastating flooding since my visit.  It made the national news.  I took a handful of pictures and decided that it would be well worth another visit at a better time of the year.

Here are those I took.

Garden Cottage

Underpass

Discus Thrower

Rear elevation

Front elevation