Yesterday, Sunday 7th, 14 club members braved the wet conditions and visited Slimbridge WWT [on the basis that most viewing is from hides]. We did pretty well and saw 61 species.Apart from a more or less ‘full set’ of common ducks, geese featured well with huge numbers of Barnacles, Canadas, Greylags, some distant Russian Whitefronts and a couple of ‘exotica’ – 2 Snow Geese and a Ross’s Goose. Highlight of the small birds was a very active Firecrest. From the Zeiss hide, a smart female Marsh Harrier flushed a large number of Teal. On the wader front yours truly managed to wheedle out a distant Little Stint in amongst the 100 or so Dunlin, and there were huge numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover, plus an impressive 13 Ruff. The last shout that more or less topped the lot, was the arrival of 12 Cranes in front of the Zeiss hide, although they eventually landed out of sight below the sea wall.