WWT Washington

I was beginning to think that the WWT were hiding all their otters on purpose - we didn’t see any at either Slimbridge last week or Martin Mere - but they were very much in sight today at Washington. They were the Asian Short Clawed variety and very cute - see extra for one rubbing his belly. 
We really enjoyed this site a lot - much more than Slimbridge which was busy, very commercial and more than Martin Mere as we saw more and the weather was much better. 
The woodland hide today had a lovely mix of species - robin, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, bullfinches, long tailed tit, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, willow tit, dunnock, collared dove, great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch and treecreeper and we were only there for about 20 minutes as someone else came along, so we gave them our spot. 
The site was beautifully laid out and there were lots of places to see, stop and sit and plenty of hides. The river and wader pools allowed us to see a few waders this time which I’ve been missing in recent days - avocet, redshank, lapwing, godwit and lots of curlew which was lovely to see. 
All in all it was a lovely day. It’s a shame that it’s so far away from home as I’d be very happy to go again in a few weeks. I’m sure Martin Mere will be better the next time we go - at least we will choose a day with better weather. 
Tomorrow we are homeward bound after an enjoyable 4 nights away. Roll on the next one :)