WWT Slimbridge sightings 5 August 2007

5 August 2007 A few new birds in at WWT, whilst inpsecting the state of the fields for potential tractor work (impossible still due to the wet) I put up a juvenile Marsh Harrier in the 100 Acre. A couple of adult Whinchat were also on the hedge here and a Yellow Wagtail flew over. The South Lake was very busy with a variety of waders and were joined by an adult Spoonbill (initially discovered on the Rushy by Rich Hearn). Images of some of these birds can be found on the WWT website.

www.wwt.org.uk/news/213/sightings.html

Nick Goatman showed me an image taken at Nebrow hill this morning of a dragonfly that he wanted identified and it was a male Scarce Chaser!. It was near the car park resting in the hedge and showed mating scars. This is a significant local discovery.

I will be in Iceland until from 7-22nd August as part of an BBC Autumnwatch/WWT Super Whooper research team. You can follow this project on the WWT website and it will feature diary updates, images and short movies. Click on the link below to follow what is happening.

http://www.wwt.org.uk/superwhooper/573/super_whooper.html

I will update images on my return so for local news see the WWT website or The Gloster Birder plus links to keep up with what is going on.

Martin J McGill