Fine Time

We’ve just got home after a lovely 3-night break at the Slimbridge Wetland Centre, we managed to book ‘Chiffchaff’, the same shepherd’s hut where we stayed mid-heatwave in July. It’s such a cosy retreat. 

There’s Jamie in one of 13 hides available across the site. It was rather fun and because it was a rainy day we had a lot of the hides to ourselves. We like watching and listening to birds but aren’t very good at recognising them so tend to refer to most of them as ‘gull’, ‘goose’ or ‘duck’ - often just ‘bird’ which isn’t very helpful really! Here are a few photos ( I’ve added names mostly based on Google Lens so feel free to correct.)

Spoonbills

Northern Lapwing

I’d recognise a lapwing as my junior school’s playing field used to be covered in them - sad to think they’re now on the ‘red list’.

Pied Avocets

Tufted Duck

There wasn’t a lot of colour on show because it’s not mating season - I expect that’s why the tufted duck looks so grumpy 🤭

Here’s a bit of colour to cheer the page up. Flamingoes are odd-looking things but the colours are fabulous.

There are 6 different species at Slimbridge and can live to be 60 years old. This Lesser Flamingo is the smallest at less than 1metre tall and I really like the pale pink colouring.

Flamingo

But the cutest resident award goes to little Tilly, the otter. So sweet. She was quickly on the scene when her keeper arrived though initially had to be tempted into the water with food. Later we saw her happily playing on her own flipping a pebble around in her paws. Look at her lovely thick coat. I hope we see Hungerford’s wild otters one day.

We were very glad we took our Winter coats which we hadn’t needed on the first day. This is me in one of the hides. I opened the window and that’s the wind blasting in pushing my hair back. Brrr. 

We went up the Estuary Tower Hide which was really cold and the wet weather didn’t provide for great views over the Severn, but I like this view from one of the lower level hides.

We saw so many birds and heard even more. The Common Cranes were especially loud to wake up to each morning - they’re a success story for re-colonising in Britain. At 1.2m tall they’d be impressive to see in flight. I love the rhythmic sound of swans flying overhead and there were many, but this photo is Canada Geese, I think.

The early mornings and evenings sitting outside our shepherd’s hut were great for watching birds (note the generic term) fly overhead and using the Merlin app to try to identify some of the crazy pips, squawks, tweets and whistles coming from all directions! I miss those unusual sounds now we’re back home.

It was a cold and clear night after the wet day so we had an evening of star-gazing and yesterday morning there was the thinnest sliver of moon before sunrise. Beautiful.

We had a little trip out to the Sharpness Dockyard, Severn View Point to eat a pizza one evening. We went for the Sunset but enjoyed seeing two big ships manoeuvring to their moorings. This one (Misje Kandy) was ~90metres long. I was interested to see it’s a hybrid vessel built this year, you can look up all kinds of ship details through this link.

It was such a lovely break. I look forward to Hungerford’s Wetland scheme progressing over the next year. I want to suggest they follow the Slimbridge example for benches - aren’t these great?

The song title is courtesy of Cast, because we did have a mighty fine time ☺️

Down to the River (to pray)

We’ve had a break from watering whilst staying at the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve for a couple of nights. We were staying in ‘Chiffchaff’; one of five very well equipped shepherd’s huts in Warblers Meadow. Such a lovely spot.

Each hut has its own little pond beside the outdoor seating area. It was hot and sunny so it was wonderful sitting there in the evening shade watching dragon flies, butterflies and moths. I was particularly excited to see this large Jersey Tiger Moth.

Jersey Tiger Moth

We could hear the geese, gulls and an oyster catcher over on the reserve and saw various birds flying over. Our little pond was visited by moorhens with at least two chicks and even a muntjac deer. The first evening we were gifted with a stunning sunset.

We were using the Merlin bird id app to recognise birdsong around us - mostly reed warblers. 

Unfortunately my good camera, with the zoom, not only thinks it’s May 2012, it also struggles to get the correct white balance so this is the best (bad) photo I got of a warbler. 🙄

A reed warbler - probably

And when the birdsong paused it was so quiet - much quieter than home. I opened the door at 5:30am and watched from the bed as the Sun made its way round the corner. Then we got up to enjoy the breakfast bake hamper in the morning glow. Just lovely.

It was delightful and we intend to return. On the first evening we drove to nearby Sharpness to see the docks and the River Severn. What a view.

We had a day walking round the Slimbridge Centre - around the ponds with walkways. The ponds were clearly missing the rain like all of us but the bird life didn’t seem bothered.

Especially as you can buy bags of food for them. We enjoyed feeding the geese - with their pinchy beaks.

Greylag goose

And the pretty flamingos were nice to see. Can’t help thinking of Alice in Wonderland!

Flamingos

Look at the “beautiful plumage” on this Emperor Goose which was in the Arctic Adventure area of the park.

Emperor Goose

Walking around was rather hot and exhausting so it was great to return to our nearby hut. It’ll be nice to return to Slimbridge and go further afield away from the main centre to see the wilder lakes and waterways if possible, though we fear the canoe safari could end in disaster for at least one of us!

After a tiring day we decided to visit a nearby ‘Ship Graveyard’ in Purton. Turned out it involved more walking, along a stretch of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal - much wider than our Kennet and Avon Canal.

The graveyard is where boats and barges were beached in an attempt to prevent erosion of the River Severn banks as this sign explains.

Seeing the hulks in their final resting places was rather poignant, but comforting to see how they’ve grown into the landscape and become part of it.

There were some remains of timber-framed ships above ground further along from where we stopped.

More info about the Graveyard is here.

We had to clear out of the hut by 10am so took the easier motorway route home so we could stop off at the tiny Severn View motorway services. After a coffee we were told there’s a “7 minute walk to the viewing area”. Well, it took a bit longer than that, uphill in the wind and Sun with already aching legs, but I think it was worth the walk - “if you like bridges” Jamie adds here. Well, luckily I do! 😊

The suspension bridge was opened in 1966 by the Queen - coincidentally the year I was born which is why we enjoyed this Birthday trip 🥳 Before the bridge, access was by ferry. There’s a newer bridge now, but this is the Severn Bridge I always think of.

The song title is sung by Alison Krauss - no-one was praying on our little break, but it’s such a lovely song and a great scene in the film 🙂

And now I should get moving to see how our allotment fared in our absence. Still no rain…