A Few this Week From Wildfowl & Wetland Trust

Here are a few pics I took at WWT Slimbridge this week. The first is of one of the real wild birds that visit here in large numbers - a black tailed godwit. This was taken, as were all the pictures here, using my D1H with a Nikon 80-400 VR

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/640s   

Some of the truly wild birds are a bit more tame like this Blue Tit and you can get quite close.

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/60s   

We also have a lot of feral geese like these Barnacle Geese arriving at opening time to panhandle for handouts off the visitors all day.

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/750s   

There are of course Canada Geese.

NIKON D1H    ---    310mm    f/8.0    1/350s   

and greylag geese

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/500s   

As well as 800acres of internationally protected wetland reserve WWT Slimbridge has an 80 acre collection area containing waterfowl (and flamingos) from all over the world. We have for instance Black Swans

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/500s   

and Coscoroba Swans

NIKON D1H    ---    400mm    f/8.0    1/750s   

I'm just off to Slimbridge now to see a rarity (Baird's Sandpiper) which turned up a few hours ago before the place is overrun by twitchers.

 

Thanks all for your kind comments.
Just spent an hour scanning the mud flats on the River Severn but no sign of the Baird's Sandpiper, probably decided it does not like the UK and is heading back to the USA :lol: