Slimbridge WWT #7

The weather was too good not to visit somewhere, and so, despite it being Friday 13th, I set off bound for Slimbridge.

I usually make one other call besides the WWT centre (indeed on my last trip I blipped from Purton nearby) and on this occasion I made two stops on the outward journey. The first was as I drove over the Avon at Christian Malford. In the corner of my eye I saw something on the river that might have been a swan or something similar, so I pulled up. It turned out to be a plastic bag snagged on something, but it was a stretch I hadn't explored before so I crossed the road and walked along a footpath until it deviated from the riverside, by which time I had taken a few shots.

I also had a look around the pretty town of Wotton-under-Edge, which I had driven through but not stopped at before. I spent an hour or so there and had a chat with an estate agent (as I was considering the Slimbridge area as a possible place to live).

Consequently, it was mid afternoon by the time I arrived at Slimbridge, and I was quite dehydrated so I began with a coffee in the Swan Café upstairs, overlooking the flamingos. After that I headed for the South Lake and its two hides, the Discovery Hide and the Hogarth Hide, from where I took this view.

I heard my first cuckoo of the year, found a swan on a pond with half a dozen cygnets and another swan that seemed to be guarding three otherwise unattended large young goslings, chatted to a few people and took hundreds of pictures. I also had a good look at the flora which included ox-eye daisies, poppies, arum lilies and different kinds of orchids, and found some open areas to walk through that I hadn't seen before, mostly populated by nene geese and mallards, and searched out the black swans as I had been told they had cygnets. I found the swans in the Australia section but the cygnets must have been secreted somewhere by the parents as they weren't to be seen. I wandered slowly back past a pond populated by, amongst other birds, lots of eider ducks.

I left at 1800 hr and drove back via the shortest route, taking me through Uley, Kingscote, Easton Grey and Stanton St Quintin, but completely bypassing Dursley, Tetbury and Malmesbury, and was home at 1904 hr.

L.
23.6.2014 (0950 hr)

Blip #1302
Consecutive Blip #164
Day #1541

A Trip To Slimbridge WWT, 13 June 2014 (Flickr album)

Lenses: Sigma 70-300 mm, Pentax 17-70mm

Slimbridge series
Landscape series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
David Bowie - Friday On My Mind (recorded July 1973)
From Bowie's album of cover versions, Pin Ups, this being his version of the Australian group the Easybeats' 1966 hit. It had first been covered the year after its release by the Shadows.

One year ago: Night Time Poppies