Reserve update - preparing to re-open
As we prepare to re-open Welney Wetland Centre, our much reduced team continue working behind the scenes. Caring for the wetland habitat and wildlife, bringing the reserve to you until you are able to visit.
In these final days of Welney Wetland Centre being closed to the public, our much reduced team continue working behind the scenes. Caring for the wetland habitat and wildlife, bringing the reserve to you the only way we currently can on the website and social media. Hopefully these weekly updates from the site will help you keep connected to our wildlife, the essential work that is carrying on and pull together links across our website and projects which you might find interesting.
We now have a date for re-opening so the final few preparations are being made to ensure a safe way for visitors to be welcomed back to WWT Welney.We will have a much smaller team than normal on site initially to make sure that we can work safely too.Bookings need to be made by all visitors to visit on a set date – members, non-members and pre-existing ticket holders, see here to book Entrance tickets
Tickets are made available online on a Wednesday morning for the following weeks dates. These are booking pretty fast as we have a lower capacity at present, the first week which is a short week is fully booked already. We are very excited to welcome visitors back and hope that everyone is able to enjoy the site. Final preparations to get the site ready for returning visitors has included cutting the summer walk and putting out benches along all footpaths, making sure seating in the hides is all set to the distances needed and removing shared items such as books, binoculars and the scope from the main hide.
We have two active swallow nests currently in the North wing hide, eggs are yet to hatch.The dragonfly ponds are active with damselflies; black-tailed skimmer and broad-bodied chaser are now out on the wing as well. The meadow rue along the footpaths is looking lovely in the sun. Our Grazing Officer, David Tough, has found a stock dove nest in the workshop. Hopefully our Wednesday volunteers don’t mind their blue container serving as a maternity ward for the next few weeks.
Very exciting news from the reserve as three pairs of godwits currently have chicks, including a Project Godwit pair (Delph and Anouk), and a wild Welney regular ‘Gary’. There are also good numbers of godwits on the pools in front of the hides, as any birds that have failed to breed start to congregate in post-breeding flocks. This may also include birds from other sites, so plenty of leg rings to read. On the Poject Godwit website there is a new blog post from RSPB Senior Research Assistant, Mo Verhoeven - What does a godwit scientist do in lockdown
Our screens in centre at the till points have now been installed and our contractor has also added some additional touches on the approach to the main hide.
