To properly kick off our birding year, Kev @kev07713 and I decided on a trip to WWT Slimbridge, and we were delighted when his wife, Karen @karenheath62, chose to join us. Overnight, the weather in Banbury had taken a turn for the worse, with snow falling and estate roads left icy and snow-covered, but Kev drove steadily and without drama. We made good progress down to Slimbridge, taking an imaginative route choice as we drew closer. Although there were already plenty of people on site, we were still early enough to need to enter through the Members’ gate.
We stopped by the Peng Observatory to work through the ducks and geese in the welcome warmth, enjoying the numbers of Bewick’s swans and pintails. Before long, though, we were keen to get out onto the reserve and see what else we could find.
We headed for the Estuary Tower but paused first to overlook Rushy from the hide, then passed through the new gate beside the Martin Smith Hide. Before we could turn back into the hide, we came across a small group of people gathered at the junction, apparently waiting for a firecrest to reappear. It had been seen on the far side of the track but had flown across and dropped out of view.
In the week ending 7 December, Slimbridge’s Latest Sightings report noted a firecrest present along the Withy Bed path throughout the day, with a second bird seen near Welly Boot Land. Our own notes also record our sighting on 6 December, while other trip reports from late December mention further firecrest sightings along the Decoy boardwalk.
We joined the wait, scanning patiently and picking up plenty of goldcrests along the way. After about fifteen minutes, a birder behind us called that the firecrest was showing in some ivy. It took a moment to pick it out, but there it was. I tracked the bird with the camera but couldn’t get it clear or in focus, and then it flew back across the track - had I missed my chance?
Fortunately, the bird dropped low into a bare bush and began working its way into the open, darting from branch to branch. This time I finally locked on, and as it paused briefly, I managed to grab a couple of shots.
From the Martin Smith Hide we scanned the pools, working through the wigeon and teal in the hope of picking out the green-winged teal that had been present on previous days, but without success. We then turned our attention to the distant geese, where a handful of white-fronted geese were visible but no sign of any tundra bean geese - there had been up to 12 reported a day ago. Large numbers of golden plovers were mixed in with the teal and lapwings along the edges of the pools, and the ducks frequently dashed onto the water, sending the lapwings and plovers swirling into the air as a peregrine regularly cruised through, searching for an opportunity.
We continued on to the Robbie Garnett Hide and scanned once more for the geese and the hoped-for green-winged teal. Beside us, another birder was already scanning far out to the left into the shallows, reporting that he thought he’d picked out a little stint. We swung round and quickly got onto it - then another, and then a third. Three birds feeding in the shallows alongside the dunlin, a very good tick.
Eventually we moved on to the Estuary Tower and began scanning through the geese, picking out the regular Ross’s goose and bar-headed goose combo, more white-fronted geese, barnacles, and a couple of decidedly farmyard-looking geese. Kev continued his habit of spotting birds in entirely different counties, calling a peregrine flapping way, way, way off to our left, apparently having just pinned down a recent catch.
We worked through the common cranes and counted eleven, far too distant for photographs, before three lifted off and relocated closer, off to the right.
We carried on working through the flocks when a birder to our right mentioned he had what he believed was a tundra bean goose in his scope. We joined him, and there it was among the geese we’d already scanned, clearly having dropped in after we’d moved on.
As we worked through the group more carefully, I gradually counted a total of ten bean geese.
A reserve volunteer then came down from the outside platform to let us know there were a couple of pink-footed geese off to the left. It didn’t take long to pick them up - birds we’d somehow also missed earlier, despite having scanned the geese near the two farmyard-looking individuals. Armed with news of the bean geese, the volunteer then charged back up the stairs to pass the information on.
We dropped into the South Lake Discovery Hide in the hope that the green-winged teal might have relocated there - it hadn’t - or that there might be some black-tailed godwits - there weren’t. We scanned through the ducks and could only add eight avocets to the day list.
We hoped to connect with redpolls in the alders but could only manage two “possibles”. While searching, however, we did pick up a lone chiffchaff calling and a great white egret flying over. We then retired to the Visitor Centre for a spot of lunch, before setting off for Aust in the hope of catching up with the penduline tits - up to three reported lately. Interestingly, the penduline tits are using a different area from the one where we saw an individual in mid-November last year.
Instructions advised parking in Aust village and accessing the area via a footpath off Common Lane, near the Boar’s Head pub, with viewing restricted to the footpath. From there it was a 15–20 minute walk to the area where the birds have been recorded in the stands of Typha. Birders heading back told us they’d seen the bird earlier, though it had since gone to ground, with two of the three having flown off earlier in the day.
We arrived to find around half a dozen other birders already in place and scanned both ahead of and behind us. The bird hadn’t been seen for over an hour but was almost certainly still somewhere in the area.
We waited for about an hour before one of the chaps to our left came over to tell us that one of the guys beside him had seen the bird on the far side of the reeds, but it had since dropped; the woman to my right then said she had it briefly in the same area before it dropped again. Then a couple of minutes later someone called that it had appeared on our side and much closer - it took us a moment to lock on but thankfully it was feeding in front of us. As I raised my camera I got a couple of tugs on my camera strap - it was Adrian Sparrowhawk. His companion Bryan Manston greeted us in a more conventional way - "Hello - and happy new year".
Eventually the bird took to the air, flying high and over to a patch of brambles, presumably to roost, even though it was only a few minutes after 3.00pm.
It wasn’t seen again, but we did enjoy a good chat with a birder using Swarovski’s new stabilised scope, the AT Balance 18-45x65. The scope uses a combination of a gyroscope and voice-coil motor (VCM), sampling movement more than a thousand times per second to counteract shake and deliver a continuously smooth, stable image. Battery-powered, it offers up to twelve hours of use in the field, and the stabilisation produces impressively sharp, steady views - ideal for fast, reactive wildlife observation. The chap couldn’t speak highly enough of it, also remarking on how compact and lightweight his setup now felt - I'm sure it would be seriously helpful when videoing through the scope, even in wind.
With no further sightings, we walked back to Aust village with Adrian and Bryan, said our goodbyes, and began the journey home. It’s always satisfying when a plan comes together - having dipped this species on several previous occasions, it was particularly pleasing to connect on my last two attempts.
Year list: 75.
