We have had friends staying with us this weekend and, having shown them the delights of birding on the Severn Estuary yesterday, today we accompanied them, as they drove north, for a morning visit to WWT Slimbridge further up the Severn Estuary. This may sound rather selfish but as it was them that introduced us to birding it isn’t as cruel as it may seem.

We only visited a few hides but there was plenty to see (and photograph) . There was a particularly spectacular moment when a sparrowhawk made a kill immediately in front of us and, although partially obscured by the vegetation, stayed and devoured its prey. At the same moment we were distracted too by a kingfisher flying right in front of the hide.

Apart from this the highlights were a crane in the distance, some snipe, a little egret, a black-tailed godwit in wonderful light, a flypast greylag goose, a shoveler and a Chiloe Wigeon hybrid in eclipse plumage showing its wonderful colours.

The sun was bringing out the butterflies but I only manged a photo of a peacock butterfly just as we were leaving.