Last Day at WWT Slimbridge

We woke up to frost this morning and so we decided to wear an extra layer before heading out to WWT.

We saw the bittern again. Well, I say "saw" since it's hard to distinguish between it and the reeds. We also saw the peregrine, black-tailed godwit and white-fronted geese, amongst other things.

We are very happy with the spotting-scope purchase because we wouldn't have recognized half the birds without it and we saw a beautiful snipe up real close.

We are now on our way home from Slimbridge in Herman and  Zoe is driving

Bittern Seen at WWT Slimbridge

Another good weather day today except it was bitter cold sitting in bird hides all day. It was worth it though, we got some good views of not one but two bitterns at the Zeus hide. I managed to capture the second on video. If it wasn't for the noisy click click click click click of the cameras with massive lenses then we may have seen a bit more of the bittern but instead it was scared back into the cover of the reeds.

Back at the campsite in Herman the Hymer, we run out of gas (always happens at night while your making the dinner) but this is good because it allowed us to switch to the refillable gas system that I fitted over Christmas. No more buying expensive gas bottles.

Another Great Day at WWT Slimbridge

What a great day we've had today at WWT Slimbridge. The weather started out with clear blue sky, a great day for bird watching.

However, our first stop was the telescope and binocular shop. After, what seemed like hours, we left with a shiny new spotting scope with tripod and bag.

We spent the rest of the day sitting in the bird hides. I think Zoe enjoyed the new scope, in fact she spotted a peregrine falcon miles away chomping on a kill on the ground. You couldn't make it out with the binoculars. We also saw three marsh harriers, buzzards, red shanks and many others.

Winter is definitely the best time to see birds.

WWT Slimbridge in Herman

This week we are going to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust at  Slimbridge for a few days. We are staying at a campsite right next door in Herman.

We finally arrived after a miss-start due to me forgetting my camera lens and tripod just in time to watch them feed the spoon-billed sandpiper chicks. Feeding was shown through a live video to their cinema. The spoon-billed sandpipers are near extinction and there are only 200 left in the world. The WWT are in the process of bringing them back from the brink and have collected some eggs from the breeding grounds in the artic tundra in Russia. They now have 13 healthy chicks which is 5% of the spoon-billed sandpiper population.

The WWT are an amazing organization originally created by Sir Peter Scott who's father is the famous Captain Scott of the Antartic.

Otters, again

Today we decided to go back to Studland Beach to see if we could see the otters again but this time with our cameras. We weren't disappointed. Check this out.

We also went to see Old Harry's Rock which is in the same area.