It all comes out in the Wash

Took a birding safari to the Ouse Washes RSPB and Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Reserves in Cambridgeshire yesterday (near enough a 4 hour drive). The Washes are summer grazing meadows which lie between two parallel drainage channels on the East Anglian Fens. In winter, these meadows are deliberately flooded in order to drain the low-lying surrounding farmland and in these conditions, attract huge numbers of wintering waders, ducks, geese and swans. Most notably perhaps are the Whooper and Bewick's swans which join our resident Mute swans. Whoopers and Bewick's breed in Iceland and on the Russian Tundra respectively and in that respect are truly "wild swans" and, for me, that makes them a bit special.

I took these shots of Coot and Shoveler while I was there. As it was a bit dark I over-exposed by a couple of stops and then had to reduce the brightness in Photoshop! The only other manipulation I've done is to sharpen them a little.

It was a windy, sleety day with the temperature just above freezing but it's amazing what turns up. I saw 50 species on my trip and I think that this must be the first time I've ever seen so many in one day since I started actively birding a few years ago. I like seeing all birds but my highlights were:

Tree sparrow (threatened, a red list species, but common here at the feeders), Goldfinch (very smart, colourful little birds), Gadwall (a really subtly beautiful duck), Teal, Pintail, Pochard and Wigeon (four, more colourful ducks which are a real change from the ubiquitous Mallard), Little grebe (a small bird not often easy to spot on acres of open water) Ruff (in winter plumage, quite a challenge to pick out among the Redshank), Snipe (again, subtly beatiful plumage, sometimes a real challenge to see as they're so well camouflaged, and the enormous bill just makes me smile!), Kestrel (it's always exciting to watch raptors doing their thing) and Kingfisher (so exoticly coloured and because, on this occasion, I was patient and my habitat assessment worked out just right!), Goosander and Great Crested grebe (both looking quite regal coming in to breeding plumage), Great Spotted and Green woodpeckers. And the swans.

Check them all out here