Water, Water everywhere (Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre
Date:	10/04/06 (1131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Conservation and protection of wetlands

Disadvantages: None from my point of view

Spring has officially arrived, the Kingfisher are back perching on their favourite branch and the hoards of twitchers are queuing up, telescopes, binoculars and very long lens cameras in hand.

Living in Gloucestershire not far from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre at Slimbridge I have been a member of the Wildfowl and Wetlands trust (WWT) on and off for a good many years. The WWT is primarily a charity, started in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott, the son of the arctic explorer.

Slimbridge was the first of the 9 visitors centres set up by the WWT and is the headquarters of the trust. Sir Peter Scott chose Slimbridge because it lies on the banks of the river Severn, and he noticed how many visiting geese relied on these waters and the area surrounding it. He is of course right, the wetlands along the Severn are under threat here as anywhere, a little further down the river we have Berkeley Power Station, and further up river many flood defences are in place and areas reclaimed to support the city of Gloucester so the wetlands even around here are being destroyed. Slimbridge, however is now very well protected.

How to get there

Slimbridge is very easy to find, signposted from Junction 14 and 13 of the M5, then is 3 miles off the A 36 which runs parallel to the motorway. The road leading down to it however is single track most of the way, with typical passing places. There is also a nasty blind spot as the road goes over a canal bridge.

But, once you have passed the canal bridge, your spotting can usually start. I don’t think I have ever driven down there without seeing anything of interest, there is an old tree about half way down that we have seen great spotted woodpeckers, buzzards the always present pigeons and all sorts of other things in at one time or another. You also get your first glimpse of the centre. The visitors centre at Slimbridge was the millennium project for the WWT, it contains a high observatory tower that allows you to view right down onto the Severn for miles and naturally a view of the entire site. It is not often used by serious twitchers though as because of the height and the distance most personal optics are not strong enough, and whilst there is an industrial sized scope up there, as you can imagine it is usually surrounded by kids. It is this tower that you see first.

The centre

Walking out from the car park always gives me a sense of excitement, even after all these years because you never get two days the same (yes I’ll admit it, I’m a twitcher) There is a gangway leading up to the main reception area which as with most areas in the centre has excellent disabled access and wheelchairs are available if necessary. At the top of the gangway last year were a couple of nesting pigeons just under the gables of door.

Now there are two ways to ‘do’ Slimbridge, the first is recommending for visitors with children who simply want a nice easy walk round to ‘feed the ducks’ and have little interest in sitting in a hide with a pair of binoculars, the second for people who have optical equipment and want to sit in a hide. Leaving the centre you go through an educational area with some details on environment and conservation and during half term and holidays they have brass rubbing and badge making for the kids and here you can buy your bird food for 50p a bag, we rarely buy this these days but if I do I’ll get one and a spare bag and split it, there is plenty, but the Canada geese will eat out of your hand if you get it, which the kids love. You walk out to a small walkway over a couple of man made lakes and this is the area where you will find most of the swans. Now Slimbridge is an important resting place for migrating Bewicks and Whooper Swans (Bewicks have a yellow and black beak, half and half, Whoopers are similar but about two thirds yellow.) The best time for this area is winter and early spring, before they head off back up north. My girls always have a healthy awareness of the swans, there is no doubt that they are beautiful and majestic but a swan can break a mans arm if it attacks and these are wild birds so whilst they are on the whole safe, please remember that they are wild birds and as a precaution I always carry the food through this area for my girls, and have seen many an unhappy child lose its entire bag because a swan has gone for it and they’ve panicked. Also in this area is a bust of Sir Peter Scott, I have never taken one myself but I can assure you, you won’t have to wait long to get a picture of it with a bird sat on top.

Slimbridge is divided into regional areas, they have North and East Asia, South Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and the Frozen North with identification boards in each area. Now to be honest I never really saw the point of these divisions as although there are resident birds who are quite happy to stay put in their allocated area the majority of birds are visitors and are free to roam throughout the centre, so you will see similar species throughout depending of course on the time of year. These areas are also separated with gates, I never really saw the point of that either, I mean birds fly and can certainly clear a 5 bar gate!

So moving on passed the swans you come down through an area where there are some stepping stones for the kids, yes I have regularly taken home a slightly soggier child than I arrived with but they like it. In this area you also have the first of two groups of flamingos that live in Slimbridge, this is great for the visitors but part of me always feels that this is not what Slimbridge is about, for me it is about visiting or resident wild birds not flocks that are bought in.

You then come to a crossroads which depending on which group you fit in to – Group 1, (families with children and no binoculars) turn Left, unless you have a picnic with you, Group 2 turn right, the right hand way takes you down to a number of hides, and we have often seen herons down here and if you are early enough you can hear sedge warblers. The hides at the bottom look out over the river and many a visitor goes up and comes straight back down again because you can see nothing of interest without binoculars. This area is always rather noisy as there are some large trees housing a rookery, (I’m sure Peter Scott is sat up there looking down on us saying ‘no! I meant a rockery!) There is however right down at the very end and quite a walk, a wonderful little hide that looks over a bank that was created for kingfishers, checking the website they are there now, and we took some great photos last year which my husband subsequently wiped by mistake. This bank was created for them back in 1991 and they have bred there ever since, so if you check at the desk on the way in this bit will be of interest to both groups.

Tropical house

The Tropical house in the centre has been there for many years and is looking a little tired now, but has a warm wet atmosphere, and a few butterflies and birds.

You can then follow the path around to the second flock of Flamingos. Interestingly if you check the website (www.wwt.org.uk) there is a story about a pair of gay flamingos, two male flamingos have been together now for a period of 5 years and have raised adopted chicks every year.

Near these flamingos there is a child’s play park, and up beyond this is my favourite hide, partly because of the fact that it is fully built with sofa’s in, but mainly because it looks over another great lake and is great for introducing kids to birdwatching, the lake was man made about 3 years ago, they launched a huge campaign at Christmas for people to bring their old trees down to line the lake and give plenty of places for the fish. This lake attracts Cormorants that you can see drying their wings and there are not many places in the UK that you can see this quite so easily. For a while now there have been Black Tailed Godwits, which should have migrated, but they couldn’t be bothered so stayed! There have also been literally hundreds of Lapwings this winter

The Return Route

Walking back to the centre there are a number of conservation projects like a marsh garden, a natural garden and a decoy hide. Then for members there is a summer walkway which takes you down to the Severn, in Winter this has one of the more popular ‘serious twitcher’ hides, where we have seen Merlins, Buzzards and lapwings which are really spectacular when disturbed and they all fly off together.

Focus.

Focus is an optics shop selling everything from £10 starter binoculars for children to large size Telescopes, tripods, hide clamps and they have probably one of the best testing views for this kind of shop in the country this is another lake, very popular with water birds and the odd heron so plenty of things for you to try out your potential new pair of binoculars on.

You have then made your way back to the centre where they have the obligatory restaurant and shop – I do try and avoid the restaurant because I feel it a bit too much of an extravagance when I only live 20 minutes away. But it is good value, especially on Sundays with the roast dinner. The shop is good for unusual gifts for people who appreciate nature and conservation.

Special Events

Slimbridge hosts a number of special events throughout the year, this varies naturally but mainstays are:

Downy Duckling Week – Kids go free during February half term, when many of the ducklings are out

Dawn Chorus walk – we did this last year and it was wonderful, we arrived there at 4.30am (had a good sleep later) and a guide took us around listening to all the birdsong, Nightingales, Goldcrests and so many others, one of the things that really struck me about this was how strong the early morning scent is, stinging nettles have a beautiful smell but you never really notice it. They also took us on a landrover along the banks of the Severn once the sun had come up then back to the centre for an included breakfast.
The great west bird fair
Migration walks
Photography days
Evening Landrover safaris
And daily at the centre are free guided walks as an introduction to birdwatching.

So how much does it cost

Adults are £6.75, Children £4.00, family ticket £18.00

To be honest, whilst I certainly don’t begrudge the trust the money as they do a great deal of conservation and research into wetland areas, this is fairly expensive considering it is possible to walk round in an hour, and I can understand that for people with little interest in ornithology it could be a let down. However for keen bird watchers joining is not that expensive, £50 gives a years family membership 3 visits make it worthwhile and you can visit any of the 9 centres these are at Arundle, Caerlaverock, Castle Espie, London, Camarthenshire, Martin Mere, Washington, Welney and of course Slimbridge.

Opening hours for Slimbridge are 9.30 to 5.30 daily, except Christmas day and closure is at 5.00pm in Winter

So all in all, I love Slimbridge and spend many hours down there, and should you decide to visit I hope you enjoy it too.

Thank you for reading.

PS Plipplop has just made an excellent comment about bird flu, if you check the WWT website www.wwt.org.uk, they have some information on it and do mention that it is not considered a threat as yet but they will not hesitate to close centres if they believe it to be a risk to staff or visitors.

Summary: Visitors centre at the headquaters of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust