Quack Factor celebrates the duck!
Half term family fun at WWT Arundel Wetland Centre from May 28 through to June 5.
Everybody loves ducks! What is it about these creatures that people find so appealing? Is it their waddling gait, their amusing vocals, the metallic hues of their feathers? WWT Arundel Wetland Centre believes it’s all these things and more that give ducks that indefinable ‘Quack Factor’ that makes us love them so. This May-June half-term, Arundel Wetland Centre salutes our web footed friends during Quack Factor: a festival of ducks!
‘’It’s the perfect time of year for families to see young ducklings on the wild side of the reserve’’ says centre manager Olivia Iles, ‘’and to help protect them by becoming members of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.” Stripy young shelducks, pochard ducklings in formation and bumbling baby mallards all follow their mothers around the reserve. A family of little grebes are visible from the Wetland Discovery Safari while lapwing chicks can be seen from the Lapwing and Ramsar hides. Greylag goslings honk for seed at the boat jetty. Trumpeter and Bewick’s Swans are both nesting on eggs soon to hatch into cygnets.
During Quack Factor visitors can ‘dabble and dive’ with nets in the Pond Explorer station and use the video microscope to discover an amazing variety of creatures that could become a ducks dinner! Get duck-close and personal during boat trips through Wetlands Discovery. Wildlife guides will help you look for gadwalls, little grebes and tufted ducks nesting there. Ducky Designs craft sessions are held daily throughout half term in The Holt building along with the chance to compete in Feathered Furlongs rubber duck races outside. A Great Duck Hunt trail throughout the reserve gives children the chance to win a bird guide and a pair of WWT binoculars! Follow the clues to discover fascinating duck facts!
Quack Factor: a festival of ducks runs Saturday 28 May through Sunday 5 June. The WWT Arundel Wetland Centre is open from 9:30 am – 5:30 pm seven days a week. Visit www.wwt.org.uk/arundel for more information.
