Three swans, and a couple of 'Extras'

I'm glad I changed my mind about what to do today and instead drove the few miles to WWT Slimbridge, the wildlife sanctuary adjacent to the River Severn. I’d heard that a bittern was visiting, and occasionally visible on the South Lake. I did look intently and when the shout of other bird watchers went up that it was in view I focused madly. All I could see was an amorphous shape amongst the rushes on the farthest side of the lake at least a hundred metres away.

I stayed a while and then walked to the other side of the large site to visit the Estuary Tower which allows views over the river and the flood-able marshes that can be covered when the tide is high. It was low tide and so most of the birds were elsewhere, I assume, as it was fairly deserted. That is until one takes in the scale of the place and realise that dotted about the relatively vast landscape were thousands of birds mostly in small groups.

The Estuary Tower is a recent refurbishment of the venerable Holden Tower and does provide comfortable and extensive protected views of large areas of Slimbridge from a higher vantage point. I did enjoy seeing many varieties of ducks and geese, which I’m unable to identify, because when I watch them I never seem to learn their names. Hard core ‘birders’ can annoy me with their rather too supercilious air of knowing. I just like watching and there were some very helpful people who did identify and explain how to differentiate between species.

I’ve blipped these three swans which flew past at high speed, but I'm unsure whether the two ‘Extras’ I’ve added might have been more interesting blips. The first is a common crane heading off towards the river meadows, whilst overflying some unknown bird flying at right angles to it. The second ‘Extra’ shows a male northern shoveler which flew incredibly swiftly and whose colours looked wonderful in the fading light as the cloud cover rapidly increased. My shots of the rather more appealing Bewick's Swans that overwinter here, having flown all the way from the Arctic tundra in Russia, and for which Slimbridge is renowned, sadly weren't sharp enough.