Zoo Trip #57: Slimbridge WWT (Thur 25th Aug 2016)

Realising I hadn't been back to Slimbridge since March and that I was a Life Member I organised a day trip there. Originally this had been planned for Wednesday after a couple of morning appointments but it is as well it didn't happen as it was very humid and hot. On Thursday it was cooler and fresher, quite misty near Stroud in fact, and lightly raining at times.

I stopped in the village first and had a look at a field of sheep and haybales near to the Gloucester and Sharpness canal.

I had recently put my Sigma telephoto back on my red K50 to get a bit of use from it and its macro facility (which its Pentax replacement doesn't have) would save me having to carry the Lumix compact I usually enlist for that purpose. It had done well at Marwell though there had been the odd focusing issue, but at Slimbridge it became clear that the lens wasn't "talking" to the camera at all and even using manual focus it couldn't control the aperture even after I'd cleaned all the contacts, so I had to put it away and only use the K1. Thankfully, it was the old lens that was faulty, not the camera.

This wild heron was fishing in the Rushy Pen when I entered the Martin Smith Hide with my Sam Widges Norfolk Nibble baguette and WWT Americano. There were a couple of swans and a little egret in view, and on the fence sat a buzzard only a few feet away from a couple of unwary woodpigeons.

I explored the whole of the grounds including the Kingfisher Hide at the far side, and along the way I got a good view of a greenshank, balanced on one leg and grooming itself. I saw their three American river otters and spoke to their minder and whiled away a few pleasant hours, also chatting at one point about their juvenile trumpeter swans to two staff members who were throwing grain to them. The Bewick's had migrated, of course, but a few in their permanent collection were still there.

The sat-nav tricked me into travelling via the M5, a stupidly long route as it planned for me to join the M4 at Bristol, and I came off at the first exit, which was near Thornbury, but meant I got to drive along Avon and Wiltshire villages I don't often see. The motorway route adds 20 or so miles but only saves 4-5 minutes, and this was on the Eco-Route setting.

L.

26.8.2016 (1450 hr)

Blip #1916 (#2166 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #002
Day #2345
LOTD #1151 (#1275 including archived blips)

Slimbridge series
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust series
Herons series
Wildlife series
Zoo Trip series
Outdoor Places I Have Sat In series

Taken with Pentax K-1 and Pentax HD P-D FA 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6ED DC WR lens

Slimbridge, 25 August 2016 (Flickr album)

Lozarithm of the Day:
Kate Bush - The Man With The Child In His Eyes (1979 Xmas Special)
Although they have been on my planner since they were broadcast in (I think) 2013, it was only this week that I got to watch the documentary Running Up That Hill and the clips compilation Kate Bush At The BBC and well, wow, she's amazing - on every level. This song was written when Kate Bush, incredibly, was thirteen, and the version on her debut album, The Kick Inside, was the demo recorded privately by David Gilmour at AIR studios in June 1975 when she was sixteen. Unsurprisingly, EMI signed her up the moment they heard the song. I remember being completely boggled when she made her TV debut on Top Of The Pops in February 1978 performing Wuthering Heights to a nonplussed studio audience ("It was like watching myself die", recalls Bush).

I hear him, before I go to sleep
And focus on the day that's been.
I realise he's there,
When I turn the light off and turn over.

Nobody knows about my man.
They think he's lost on some horizon.
And suddenly I find myself
Listening to a man I've never known before,

Telling me about the sea,
All his love, 'til eternity.

Ooh, he's here again,
The man with the child in his eyes.
Ooh, he's here again,
The man with the child in his eyes.

He's very understanding,
And he's so aware of all my situations.
And when I stay up late,
He's always waiting, but I feel him hesitate.

Oh, I'm so worried about my love.
They say, "No, no, it won't last forever."
And here I am again, my girl,
Wondering what on Earth I'm doing here.
Maybe he doesn't love me.
I just took a trip on my love for him.

Ooh, he's here again,
The man with the child in his eyes.
Ooh, he's here again,
The man with the child in his eyes.