Club Meeting 14th May 2026
This evening we were delighted to welcome David Broadbent to the club for his talk entitled "Wetlands".
David Broadbent
David is not only a successful commercial photographer, but also runs the WWT Slimbridge Photo School, where his insights into bird behaviours, migratory patterns, and the further development of wetlands, come to the fore.
David was keen to demonstrate his style of wild bird photography, which was less about the close-in, closely cropped image, but more about the wider landscape and habitat of the subject bird - many of his photos would be characterised as 'landscape' images which just happen to have a bird (or flocks) in the shot! This approach certainly enables the viewer to learn a little bit more about the subject in it's natural environment.
David went on to speak about his observations that the numbers of some migratory swan species, like Berwick's and Whooper, were dropping compared to previous years, which begged the question "where are they going instead?". This lead David on a search of their traditional migratory flight path. This is where he introduced us to the vast wetland of Lauwersmeer National Park in the Netherlands.
Here, it seems, Swans have decided to shorten their migration and enjoy the Dutch hospitality!
Throughout his presentation David shared with us a wide variety of images from his extensive portfolio, while he spoke about WWT Steart and the plans for the transformation of a 365 acre site at Awre, Glocs. Here the WWT plan to restore the wetlands and salt marsh.
More of David's work can be seen at - https://www.davidbroadbent.com
