After an early morning haircut I took myself off to Slimbridge, in the hope of improving my bird list for the year. Which I did, to the tune of four species, though none of them gave me close enough photos to be worth posting. Still, I was grateful to the chap in the Zeiss hide who found me the Glossy Ibis, and who also gave me some helpful pointers about spotting a Ruff among a group of other waders; and much later, to another experienced birder who identified the tiny grey blob I’d just photographed, fifty metres away across the Rushy Pen, as a Green Sandpiper, and who then kindly pointed out the Garganey I’d been looking for all day.
The dragonflies were far more obliging than the birds, especially this female Common Darter, who posed very nicely on the bridge rail outside the Hogarth hide. I’m also including a head-on shot of the same dragon – I know that not everyone will love that face, but I do. As well as numerous Common Darters there were also plenty of Migrant Hawkers around the reserve, including a female who perched in a tree just above this bridge, while I was trying and failing to track down a pair of Willow Emerald Damselflies that had just flown past me in tandem.
My only other notable find of the day was a Greater McCluskie, who wandered into the Rushy hide about half a minute after I got there. To my mind, the next best thing to seeing an owl is bumping into another owler.
