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Yet another dull and dreary day so we settled on the safe bet of Slimbridge Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire where there’s always a chance of seeing something and where we knew we could keep fairly dry by visiting the numerous hides. We also wanted to see what the newly opened Estuary Tower hide was like.

Golden plovers and lapwings (I think) were the first flocks we saw

In the end it only rained on the journey there. However, the weather was so  miserably dull that we didn’t spend long at the centre and headed home pleased that we had had some fresh air and had stretched our legs a little. We did visit the Estuary Tower hide which was most impressive with excellent access and very good views across the estuary (that is if it’s clear enough to see anything).

Despite the excellence of the  Estuary Tower hide we weren’t going to see much in this light

The highlight of our visit was a water rail which was close enough for me to get some decent photos.

Water rail

Not a great day for photographing wildfowl but I was pleased to see one of my favourites – pintails.

Pintails

Greylag goose

I also took the opportunity to photograph some small birds at close quarters.

Blue tit

Blue tit

House sparrow

Blue tit

Robin

Wren

Can’t wait for the sun to come back!