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.
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| Pintail |
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| Bewick's Swan |
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| Teal |
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| 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.
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| Greylag Goose |
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| Wigeon |
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| Buzzard |
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| Black-head Gull |
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| 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.
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| Garden Cottage |
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| Underpass |
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| Discus Thrower |
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| Rear elevation |
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| Front elevation |
