Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos

14th January 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

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martintayler

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It’s been a slow start to the year for bird photography as we have been “confined to barracks” by chest infections and very cold weather; on the few opportunities we have had to get out and about I have not felt like lugging a camera with me. And so, here we are with almost half of January gone and my first offering.

Slimbridge is a fairly safe bet as it is teeming with birds at this time of year. The big attraction is the Bewick Swans, the smallest of the swans that regularly winter here, having come from their breeding grounds in Siberia. I bet they have not been complaining about the cold as much as I have!

It was a fairly grey morning but with lots of large birds flying around I had enough photo opportunities to keep me happy.

There were also a couple of the larger Whooper swans there too.

Whooper swan to the left and Bewick swan to the right

Bewick swan

Bewick swan in flight

Greylag geese

Canada goose

Shelduck

Lapwings and dunlin

Northern pintail

Shelduck

The lapwings are so spectacular, even in the dull light

Lapwing

Bewick swan

It was quite a thrill to see common cranes too

Common cranes in flight

Common cranes

There were some small birds – a female common chaffinch

Snow drops added a bit of joy at the end of our morning’s visit

Comments

4 responses to “14th January 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire”

  1. rogerrees2 Avatar
    rogerrees2

    Pintail rather than Northern Shoveler? If you love cranes (I do) go to Lac Du Der in Champagne. Just a day’s drive from Calais. Large reservoir for Paris where you can see thousands of cranes stop off on migration between Iberia and Scandinavia. Amazing sight. (and sound, as they fly over in formation.) Also purple heron, squacco heron, black stork, golden oriole, osprey , caspian terns and lots more. Popular tourist place for Parisians, so plenty of accommodation available. They have wildlife photography festival each year and see they now have a ‘Migration Festival’ too (in 2024 at least).

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    1. martintayler Avatar
      martintayler

      Pintails are my favourite duck so how I wrote that I don’t know! A visit to the Champagne region is worth it anytime. Must do some research on the Lac du Der and think about organising a visit. For two former French teachers we don’t do France enough. Thanks for your contribution Roger. Happy new year.

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  2. Michael Sammut Avatar
    Michael Sammut

    Fantastic collection of shots, Martin. Very well done.

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  3. martintayler Avatar
    martintayler

    Thanks Michael. Much appreciated

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