Slimbridge 14th January 2006 by Ann Crawford

Slimbridge 14th January 2006 by Ann Crawford

When we got to Bristol, it started to rain, and I thought “Oh dear not again”; but the rain stopped soon after we arrived, and by the afternoon the sun was out, and by 4.00pm the setting sun was so bright, that it was difficult to see the birds from the west facing hides. Some people are never satisfied!

The most interesting thing of the day was Tollie and his handler demonstrating decoying ducks. Tollie is a Nova Scotian Tollard Retriever, and from a distance looks not unlike a fox, the main predator of ducks. The ducks reaction is to chase it away, rather in the fashion of Crows mobbing Buzzards. This reaction is then used, by Tollie appearing near the large netted trap, and the ducks follow, and end up in the trap. To begin with there were about 6 Mallards on the lake, but when Tollie appeared ducks flew, swam in from all over the place, and we ended up with about 80, mostly Mallards, but there were about 4 Mandarin Ducks. It was a fascinating reaction.

We saw lots of ducks, and I do mean lots. There were masses of my favourite, the Tufted Duck, or Tufty. They look like the prototype of the bathroom duck, except they have their tails low in the water, not sticking up. They are very dapper, the male being a smart black and white and are diving ducks. They stay under water for a surprising length of time, and suddenly bob up like a cork. There were fields being grazed by Wigeon, lots of Teal, some of which were very close, so that we could admire their colours; there were several Shovelers, a few Goldeneye and a handful of Mandarin ducks. Richard tells me that they are countable, as they are wild in England, so I shall, and on the same basis I hope that the Eiders were visitors too! The geese were mostly far away on the edge of the estuary, so that telescopes were essential for identification. They were mostly Barnacle, Canada and White-fronted. Amongst them were hundreds of Dunlin.

We saw flocks of Lapwings flying over, with some Golden Plover amongst them. Just before we left we saw several murmurations of Starlings assembling for their roosts.

We were fascinated by the lack of fear of the Moorhens and Coots. We got really close to them and could see their feet. We looked at the Moorhens’, which are yellow with very long toes , but when they went onto a branch or the bar of the gate, they could not use them for gripping, and kept slipping, and in the end usually flew of to prevent an undignified fall! The Coots’ were white with lobes, to help them to walk on the water. They were far too sensible to try and walk on gates!

I had the best sighting I have ever had of a Water Rail. It was beside a hedge, below some Widgeon, with the sun full on it, so that the white on the tail shone out, and the long pointed bill was very clear. It was there a while, so that we could really admire it, not doing the usual thing of darting in and out of reeds, just giving one a glimpse, which can be so frustrating.

In our last hide we were lucky enough to see a Greater Spotted Woodpecker very clearly. On the way out we watched the Pied Wagtails assemble for their roost in the roves of the centre. Although I saw 50 species, I failed to see a House Sparrow, and was even sent back from the coach to see if I could see the one seen by someone else near the entrance. I thought that I heard it, but not a Sparrow in sight for me that day. All in all a wonderful day out, and thank you Richard for organising it.

Number of species seen: 55

Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order

BOU order

Mute Swan

Bewick’s Swan

Greater White-fronted Goose

Greylag Goose

Canada Goose

Barnacle Goose

Shelduck

Mandarin Duck

Wigeon

Gadwall

Teal

Mallard

Pintail

Shoveler

Pochard

Tufted Duck

Pheasant

Cormorant

Grey Heron

Sparrowhawk

Buzzard

Kestrel

Peregrine

Water Rail

Moorhen

Coot

Golden Plover

Lapwing

Dunlin

Ruff

Snipe

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-headed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Feral Pigeon

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Pied Wagtail

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Blackbird

Long-tailed Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Magpie

Jackdaw

Rook

Starling

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Alphabetic order