A busy and sunny day
Its been a busy one here at Slimbridge with lots of birds out in the sunshine and lots of activity. Out on The Dumbles we've had thousands of waders, mainly Lapwing and Golden Plover with a few Dunlin mixed in too.
Rushy Hide & Peng Observatory
A great count of 109 Bewick's Swans this morning, many of which stayed for the feed. We've now had 152 individuals pass through the reserve so far this season. At the 4pm feed around 60 swans dropped in with a thousand or so duck including Pintail, Tufted Duck, Pochard and the hybrid Wigeon which briefly gave great views to visitors in the observatory.
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Holden Tower
A busy day all round with the Peregrine hunting the waders and Wigeon flock. We've several thousand Lapwing alone, so add in several hundred Golden Plover and Dunlin and one of the reserve's winter spectacles is coming to its peak ready for the next few months. Three Cranes were also out on The Dumbles along with some of the 133 White-fronted Geese that were seen today, which moved between fields and could be hard to find them all at times. A loafing flock of 87 Great Black-backed Gulls were present at high tide.
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Robbie Garnett Hide
Although the Tack Piece remains dry through the lack of rainfall, we're seeing a gradual build in wintering numbers here of Wigeon, Teal and Lapwing. Hopefully the weather will deliver some much needed rain and start to flood the field and the true spectacle can begin.
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South Lake Hides
Numbers are starting to build here, often with several hundred Lapwing present throughout the day. A Great Crested Grebe has returned to the deep lake in its winter plumage, as is joined by varying numbers of duck, particularly Tufted Duck and Pochard. Don't forget to check out the Hogarth Hide too overlooking the bottom of the scrape and the duck marsh. Teal numbers are building with 300+ present today.
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Zeiss Hide
The main wader action was here today, including views of the wader flock tumbling around on The Dumbles. Along with the Little Stint, around 1500+ Lapwing were present as well as 6 Redshank, 15 Ruff, 4 Snipe, 85 Pintail, 500 Dunlin and over 2000 Wigeon.
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Kingfisher Hide
At high tide a flock of 36 Curlew dropped in to the Bottom New Piece field to feed whilst around 500 Lapwing and 50 Dunlin were on the scrape. A pair of Little Grebe were on the pond and three Reed Bunting were feeding along the edge of the reedbed.
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