Gloucestershire's WWT Slimbridge recently welcomed ‘Birdgirl’ Dr Mya-Rose Craig for a special recording of her podcast Get Birding.
In this new podcast, people up and down the UK are encouraged to venture into their gardens and local parks to get to know Britain’s birds, find out how and where to see them, and start to understand their behaviour.
As lockdown restrictions ease, Mya-Rose explores how we can expand our birding horizons from our back gardens and regular walks, to further afield.
She says: ‘The big news is that I got to visit a nature reserve that’s one of my favourites. I grew up going there all the time and I was so excited to go back and I did some recording there for you guys – it’s called Slimbridge and it’s in Gloucestershire, not far from where I grew up, so I’ve got a lot of childhood memories there. It’s run by WWT, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and it’s a really big site with 120 acres; it’s made up of one huge lake called the South Lake, and then lots of other bits of wetland where you can see amazing wading birds like avocets, many of which are breeding this year.
‘You can also see beautiful iridescent kingfishers, swans migrating there for the winter and even flamingos! Kate Fox helps to look after the site and she told me it’s not just about what you can see at Slimbridge but how well you can see it.’
Mya-Rose Craig met up with Kate, a university placement student, and Slimbridge’s Reserve Manager Dave Paynter, to find out about the work they have been doing during lockdown to help improve the habitats for a variety of wildlife. With support from Severn Trent Water, the reserve team have carried out a variety of conservation work on the 120-acre Slimbridge reserve, including restoring old paleo channels and building nesting sites to encourage birds, such as cranes and avocets, to breed on the site.
READ MORE: Why you should visit Stowell Park Gardens in the Cotswolds
Listen to episode six of Get Birding across all major streaming platforms and on Acast.
