Birding in Gloucestershire

I've just come back from a trip to Gloucesteshire, here is the account of the 2 days.

Day 1

I spent most of this day at the WWT Slimbridge. The fields next to the entrance were filled with about 50+ Bewick's Swans, I also manged to pick out an adult Whooper Swan amongst the Bewick's. After paying I spent some time to the pond next to the centre to get some close up shots of the Bewick's Swans. Next I visited the hides, from here I saw large numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing (over 1000), Golden Plover (700) and Barnacle Geese (c200). Walking between hides there was a flock of Long-tailed Tits with 2 Goldcrests and c2 Chiffchaffs. From the Tack Piece there were more Bewick's Swans, 30+ Tufted Duck, 10 Pochard and 2 Cranes. I also had some great views of 20 Pintail. At the Holden Tower there was 10 Shelduck, 1 Ruddy Shelduck and a large flock of Greylag Geese, including a Leucistic individual.

Bewick's Swan

Long-tailed Tit

Pintail

Crane

Day 2 

An early start this morning saw us heading to the Cotswold Water Park hoping to find a Smew. First we stopped at the visitor centre to get some maps of which lakes are best for Smew. After a few failed attempts to find the right lakes we stopped the centre and had a look at the near by lake. There was good numbers of Tufted Duck, 3 Goldeneye, 3 Great Crested Grebe and 6 Red-crested Pochard. Eventually we found the lakes which were most likely to have Smew, 28, 28a, 29 and 30. A quick scan of 29 lead to nothing much apart from 15 Red-crested Pochard. Walking past 28a 2 ducks took off from the water, and yes, they were Smew!! A drake followed by a duck. They landed on 29 and offered poor views, sitting for about a minute and then flew out of view. Carrying on our walk we pasted lake 28 and another lovely female Smew took off.

Red-crested Pochard

On our way home we made a quick stop to see if any Black Redstarts were around Penarth Marina. Not long after we started to look a cracking male Black Redstart landed on the roof of a nearby house. It was soon joined by a female/1st winter type. I watched them for about half and hour as they foraged around the marina. The male came quite close at one point but the light was fading so the photos aren't brilliant.

Black Redstart