A bust of Sir Peter Scott at the Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre
Over Christmas I thought I would miss my usual trip to the Llanelli Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre because of the miserable weather, but as it turned out we found a break in the weather on New Year’s Day and went instead to the Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre over the Severn Bridge in England.
This is the original home of the wildfowl trust in Britain and was founded by Peter Scott, a brilliant conservationist and son of Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic).
The Slimbridge WWT Centre in January 2012
My wildfowl guide - that picture on the cover is a red-breasted goose by Peter Scott
The Slimbridge reserve on the banks of the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire was founded in 1946 but now the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust has nine reserves across the UK.
On our visit to the centre we overheard a woman saying of everyone else in general: “Look at these people, they don’t care about the birds – all they want is a good picture.”
That rankled a bit. I am hoping the two things aren’t mutually exclusive – I tend to use my pictures to identify the species later and find out more about them.
For this I use an excellent little pocket guide called Collins Coloured Key to the Wildfowl of the World, which I would highly recommend for wildfowl spotters.
The Slimbridge WWT Centre in January 2012
Mandarin duck - Aix galericulata - originally from Eastern Asia
North American wood duck - Aix sponsa
Coot - Fulica atra
Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus
Grey duck - Anas superciliosa - from New Zealand and the South Pacific
Mallard - Anas platyrhyncos - I always love those curly black feathers at the tail end...
South American Chiloe wigeon - Anas sibilatrix - pretty, I think...
Bahama pintail - Anas bahamensis
Puna teal - Anas versicolor puna - from South America
Another South American - the ringed teal - Calonetta leucophrys - sorry about the soft focus!
Tufted duck - Aythya fulligula
Rosybill - Netta peposaca - from South America
Possibly a female South American pochard - Netta erythrophthalma
Common shelduck - Tadorna tadorna
Ruddy shelduck - Tadorna ferruginea - tends to breed further south in Spain and southern Eurasia
Unidentified duck, Slimbridge WWT, January 2012
Eider duck - Somateria mollissima - click on the picture to go to another blog post about eiders...
Mr and Mrs eider duck...
Pink-footed geese honking - Anser brachyrhynchus - they tend to breed up in Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen...
Swan goose - Anser cygnoides - this tends to overwinter in China and breed further north in eastern Asia - also pictured is a coot...
Mute swans - Cygnus olor
Black-necked swans - Cygnus melanocoryphus - native to South America
The Cape Barren goose - Cereopsis novae-hollandiae - comes from Australia and is always kept caged, so maybe it bites - for some reason I (wrongly) call it a celadon goose, maybe because of the yellow-green beak...
It's that man again - Slimbridge wildfowl centre founder Sir Peter Scott
Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in January 2012
Fish in the tropical house - a bit dingy and steamy, but you get the picture...
Pretty grey-winged trumpeter - Psophia crepitans - in the tropical house
Common or Eurasian crane - Grus grus - whose migrations were recently featured in the BBC's Earthflight series
Chilean flamingos - Phoenicopterus chilensis
Greater flamingos - Phoenicopterus roseus
Ghost of an extinct aurochs - Bos primigenius - in the Back from the Brink area...
Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre in January 2012
Pollarded tree at Slimbridge
A close-up of the pollarded tree at Slimbridge
Alder catkins - Alnus glutinosa - at Slimbridge in January 2012
Pink Daphne blossom at Slimbridge in January 2012
Mistletoe - Viscum album - at Slimbridge in January 2012
Winter-white black-headed gull - Larus (or Chroicocephalus) ridibundus - in the picnic area...
So all in all it was a great day out and hopefully I will remember some of those species names next time…
The Squirrelbasket 
Absolutely adorable, I love Slimbridge with there beautiful wild ducks they are so colourful. For some reason the pink Flamingo’s attracted me when I was last there.Wow that was many years ago.
I also hadn’t been there for many years. I think my favourite is the North American wood duck with its colourful patterns. I feel sorry for the flamingos, as they always seem a bit bored!
That’s more than you can say for the flamingos featured in the BBC’s Earthflight series – they seem easy prey for eagles and baboons. I wish I could share with you the amazing mating dance of the flamingos from the series, but I think it can be viewed only in the UK. But I did find this video on YouTube that gives the general idea…
Best wishes until next time 🙂
We went on Sunday with the Glamorgan Bird Club. Our day was equally enjoyable but very different from yours, as we focused on the wild birds and not the collection of captive birds. As a group we saw about 65 wild species (if you count feral pigeon, pheasant and possibly feral mandarin duck as wild).
There were noticeable absences. A solitary House Sparrow was seen by only a few people, incredible in a place overflowing with bird food and people eating sandwiches and cake. The Kingfishers are no longer at the Kingfisher Hide. There were quite modest numbers of White-fronted Geese (there used to be thousands, they were a prime reason why Peter Scott bought the land), Pochard and some other migratory wildfowl, because warmer European winters mean they are staying in Holland and Denmark.
On the plus side, there were plenty of Greenfinches, which have all but disappeared from my area of Cardiff, possibly because of Trichomonosis disease. If you feed wild birds please follow the RSPB’s advice at http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/sickbirds/greenfinches.aspx
Thanks for that, Paul. A different perspective!
It’s strange, but I only ever see greenfinches in my garden once a year, in summer. They don’t come to the bird table but seem very drawn to the tiny seeds of my Cotinus. Here’s a picture. Sadly last year, after the hard winter, we had no cotinus seeds, and therefore no greenfinch 😦
Speak again soon…
Last time I was there they were planning a new section – beavers? otters? I forget which. Is that open now?
It must have been otters, but all was quiet there when I was visiting. They hold daily feeding sessions but not sure if that carries on in the winter…
Perhaps they wait for otter weather…..
Hello, enjoyed reading your blog. Yes we do have otter feeding sessions and talks throughout the year. In fact the otters love the snow and ice and regularly makes slides out of it.
We are building a new flamingo exhibit at the moment which will allow them to be kept in a larger flock. This will open around the start of the summer hopefully.
Thanks for dropping by – and thanks for that information. Next time I must make sure I am in the right place at the right time for otter feeding.
I did see the big pond area you are working on for the flamingos. Should be good.
Good luck with all your projects in 2012 🙂
I went to Slimbridge once – as a child. Somehow, I picked up the idea that it was a great honour to be there. I was impressed by the place itself but also by a sense of purpose in the atmosphere there. The bird which most impressed me was a Mandarin Duck – I see, from your photos, they are still there! Beyond that, it was the wideness and distances which left an impression.
About photographs – I doubt you would want to take photographs of birds if you didn’t care about them. I am not a bird enthusiast. Although I have enjoyed looking at your pictures here, I have never photographed birds myself. I’m not sufficiently interested. If I were at Slimbridge, busily not taking photographs, the person you over-heard would, I assume, be impressed by my enthusiasm for ornithology!
(All nonsense, of course. I live in a place where there are lots of interesting birds and lots of birdwatchers in consequence. Not only are they geared up with binoculars – they have cameras on tripods.)
Thank you for all those nice thoughts – and I wish I had the patience for a tripod…
As well as your (wrongly named) “boring” garden blog I would also like to point whoever is reading this to your “other” blog, the garden notes one. It’s lovely seeing all the pictures from your garden as the seasons change. Your latest post about the chrysalis in the Choisya is, I think, prompting me to post the pictures of my own Choisya in bloom – in January?
All the best during the current cold snap 🙂
A lovely blog – thank you for sharing your photos and providing brief captions as to what they are. It means all the more after watching the BBC Earth Flight series.
I, too have been watching Earthflight – and as a result of my Slimbridge trip I have been paricularly keen on the stories of geese and cranes.
I think recent highlights have been the geese flying through the red American desert and the mating dances of the flamingos and Japanese cranes. And the eagles, and the parrots…
Best wishes 🙂