Wildlife reserve prepares for spring/summer arrivals
Preparation is underway for the breeding season out on WWT Washington’s wildlife reserve.
Reserve manager John Gowland said: “We have begun lowering the level of Wader Lake by gradually lifting the top sluice board, allowing the water to slowly drain into Spring Gill then out in to the River Wear.
“By releasing the water gradually during a mild spell of weather, we create a bountiful supply of extra food for wintering wildfowl. This is timed to coincide with the birds feeding up in readiness for their journeys back to their breeding grounds.
- Avocets on Wader Lake
“As for the spring and summer breeding birds, we hope it won’t be long before they start to return to site. In recent years, avocets have arrived in mid-March, so with the water now draining to optimum spring/summer levels and Tern Island reappearing from the depths, will they soon be arriving back!?
“Bird life on Wader Lake looked fantastic today, with a host of wader and wildfowl species taking advantage of the freshly-exposed mud and grass.
“The grey heron colony now has at least five birds incubating eggs and a woodcock was flushed from the wet flash behind White Meadow scrub during morning fence check.”
