A cracking good trip

Slimbridge Outing, June 9

After many a worry that the trip wouldn’t go ahead due to lack of numbers, it was all right on the night so to speak. The weather was kind to us too and I’m sure everyone had a thoroughly good time thanks to Sheila’s excellent organisation.

There were several choices of tours of the bird reserve when we arrived including a ducklings tour, a main tour and an otter tour. I chose the ducklings tour mainly because it was the first. In the event, it proved fascinating as you were allowed to go into a part of the reserve from which the public is normally excluded. This is where the rare birds’ eggs are incubated and hatched, and we were even allowed to hold an egg to our ears and hear the little bird inside tapping away, about to make the first crack in the shell. Our guide also shone a torch over the egg to allow us to see the bird inside. However, I must be going blind because I couldn’t see a thing.

After that I decided I’d had enough of being talked at and ventured out on my own, bumping into various like-minded RRC members as I went along including John Baker at otters’ feeding time. Personally I find the exotic captive birds rather less interesting than the native species beyond the “zoo bit”, as Christine aptly put it. There was a wonderful view of the estuary from the tower hide, but you really needed to be there earlier in the year for the best views of waders. Wokingham RSPB group scheduled their trip for January! You’ll be glad to know I’m not suggesting that the RRC follows suit.

Steve Thomson