The Slimbridge Saga

I have called this blog the Slimbridge Saga as it may go on a bit. This is our third trip to Slimbridge and we decided to concentrate on the wild and free species rather than the pinioned resident birds. The residents are fantastic with really close views and you can practise (as we have done in the past) your photography.

The highlight of the trip was the Bewick Swans and they were interesting to compare with our Drift Whooper Swan. The numbers of wild species was mind blowing, with a couple of interesting facts imparted by the keeper at the wild bird feeding station, the peng observatory.The hides are well positioned as most of the birders will know, although photography was difficult at times due to the dimensions of the viewing slots with the gap narrower than my lens. Also we had to contend with gloomy weather and sometimes rain ( excuses, excuses). However we did our best so I will start off with Barnacle Geese photographed at the Holden hide, a two storey hide looking out over the fields running down to the river Severn. The gear used was the Nikon D300 and the 300mm f2.8 lens coupled with a 2 times converter f stop was varied between f5.6 and f10 for depth of field.