On Saturday we went to a bird sanctuary at Slimbridge just outside Gloucester, now called the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and we took out a family membership for the year. It is a long-running project to preserve and in some cases revive both the wetland environment and the birdlife that goes with it. They have flocks of flamingos, swans, zillions of ducks, including some rare endangered ones, in a series of lakes and ponds with wooden boardwalks around them. There are also three lovely otters, and a collection of frogs, toads and newts in an aquarium area. There are voles and adorable miniature harvest mice that have very natural but enclosed environments, so that you can see them nesting and scurrying about up and down reeds and even burrowing.
Many of the birds are ringed and pinioned so that they stay and breed, but there are also many that fly in, as it is a protected environment, and either stay or pass through.
One of the most interesting projects there is the reintroduction of grus grus (in the picture) - the Common Crane. They are a similar size and like a less flamboyant version of the Crested Crane in Uganda. Apparently they used to be found all over England's and Europe's waterways, but they had become extinct. One reason was that they are delicious and were served at human feasts. At Slimbridge the wardens are succeeding in breeding and rearing them and setting them free in various parts of England.
In order to persuade the chicks to behave like grown-up cranes, and not to identify with the human wardens, the wardens have to dress up as cranes, and use a wooden painted crane head to show the chicks how to forage and peck up seeds. Fabulous.
This sounds perfect for your family! Maybe we can go when I come to visit?
ReplyDeleteHi Gwyn yes we definitely can!
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