Five ways to spend your summer at Washington Wetland Centre
With a host of wetland wildlife, hands-on outdoor activities and a Quentin Blake-illustrated trail to enjoy, what amazing nature connections will you make while you’re here?
Summer is upon us, bringing with it the chance to experience all that our glorious wetlands have to offer - in full bloom and brimming with life.
Birds are busy raising their young, ponds are buzzing with colourful dragonflies and meadows are awash with flowers, while cool waterways and woodlands offer shade on warmer days.
With so much nature to enjoy, plus daily hands-on outdoor activities to try, it’s hard to know where to begin your summertime wetland adventure!
To help you decide, we’ve pulled together five of the very best experiences that you can have on a day out at WWT Washington right now, along with a handy summer activity calendar for you to download or screenshot and see at a glance what we’ve got going on. You’re welcome!
1. See us through the eyes of the UK's best-loved illustrator
Our Quentin Blake at WWT: Drawn to Water Trail is on now until September.
Featuring a selection of little before seen wetland-themed images from Sir Quentin’s personal archive, the beautifully illustrated guide accompanying the trail takes you on a journey around our wetlands, woodlands and meadows, experiencing nature in new and unexpected ways with the help of his distinctive drawings.
Pick up your free guide from admissions and see our wetland world through his eyes. Includes a detachable collectable bookmark too!
2. Have a go at a daily hands-on activity
We have a host of daily activity sessions planned across the summer – from pond dipping, den building and animal tracking; to art workshops, moth mornings and warden-led walks. There really is something for everyone to try!
Join us for NEW relaxed pond dipping sessions (Sunday 6 and Monday 7 August, pre-book online) and enjoy a special 30-minute experience with our education team, designed to welcome visitors who may benefit from a more informal setting, additional space and smaller crowds.
Try your hand at natural printing in Hollowood (24 July; 10, 16 and 24 August) with our arty learning team. Explore different printing and mark-making techniques such as hapa-zome (the Japanese art of leaf-dyeing), or enjoy painting with feathers and using chalks to trace different textures. This is a great activity for groups to do together and you can take home anything you create!
Or why not help us produce a bigger picture for wetland nature by joining illustrator Emily Butterfield for an art session with a difference?
Emily (above) has created a wonderful wetland image just for WWT Washington and we’re inviting the public to put the pieces together to make an exciting, large-scale wetland mural.
Use pens, paints, tissue paper and a whole manner of crafting materials to complete your piece of our wetland puzzle. Once finished, the giant work of art will be on display in our centre for two weeks for everyone to see! A great community project to get involved in and a wonderful way to learn more about different types of wetland nature.
See our What’s On pages for full details of all our daily summer activities and discover lots of reasons to keep coming back throughout the holidays.
3. Meet our amazing animal families
Bring your own family to meet some of ours, with twice-daily keeper talks that shine a spotlight on two of our most popular resident species.
Our Asian short-clawed otters Mimi, Musa and their son Buster are a joy to watch. See them rolling in mud, playing in the water and foraging for food around their enclosure. Our keepers feed them twice a day for the public along with a talk (at 11.30am and 2.30pm), so be sure to have some questions at the ready to test their expert knowledge!
Our Chilean flamingos are a firm visitor favourite too – with their flamboyant plumage and synchronised dance moves. At 11.45am and 2.45pm each day, the team feeds the flock and tells you fascinating facts about them.
4. Enjoy mindful time spent in nature together
There are many ways to experience and explore wetlands with children and doing so mindfully – that is, using the technique of paying attention to the present moment – may not be one that you’ve considered!
But during summer, wetlands are truly uplifting places to be: lush, verdant and brimming with life.
And spending just a small amount of time in them – with their abundance of water, wildlife and seasonal displays – can make for some incredibly mindful moments indeed.
Just outside of our visitor centre, bees buzz in large numbers through the lavender bushes and are a delight to stop and watch as they go about their business.
Gently brush the pretty purple flower heads with your finger-tips as you pass and inhale their powerful and calming aroma.
Along the main path and into Hollowood, you can practice being mindful by focusing on your footsteps.
Note the differing textures felt underfoot in this deadwood habitat - from the squish of mulchy leaves to the crunch of pine cones. Can you smell the damp earth here after a summer shower? This scent even has a special name: petrichor.
Take a wander to our wildflower meadows, filled with vibrant hues for the eyes and subtle sounds for the ears, with the swish of grass blowing in the breeze and the gentle crackle of yellow rattle.
Stop and sit awhile on the seat along the path edge. Get your little ones to close their eyes, let the sun warm their skin, breathe deeply and just ‘be’.
Once they’re relaxed, ask them to cup their ears, which amplifies the sounds they can hear. What new noises will they detect?
Visit one of our reedbeds and pause a moment to pick out the gentle rustle and sway of the reeds, interspersed with warbler calls and the sudden movements of young moorhen or coot families emerging to feed. How many juveniles can you count?
And a slightly longer trip to the amphibian and dragonfly ponds is definitely not to be missed either. Here, you’ll find easy views of colourful species including common darter, emperor and southern hawker, which can be both seen and heard on the wing as they lace through the grass and skim the water’s surface.
For more ideas of how to spend time mindfully in wetlands, read our summer wellbeing blog
5. Spot incredible summer wildlife
No visit to wetlands is complete without an up-close wildlife experience and at WWT Washington during summer, they’re around every corner!
At Hawthorn Wood Hide feeding station, colourful adult woodland birds flit and feed among shady tree branches, bringing movement and gentle twittering with them as they show young juveniles how to fly and feed.
Absorb the goings on through the central floor-to-ceiling window, which provides brilliant views for wheelchair users and buggies too – you’re never too young to start your birdwatching journey!
During summer, hundreds of waterbirds – including tufted duck and gadwall – also gather at Wader Lake and on the saline lagoon to breed and raise their young, making for a fantastic auditory experience, with their unique honks, whistles, squeaks and quacks.
Spend enough time in the circular Lagoon View Hide, with its panoramic views, and you might even glimpse the electric blue flash of a kingfisher or the white rump of a roe deer running past.
And don’t forget we have visitor facilities too…
Cuppa and a cake in the café? Or a souvenir from our well-stocked gift shop? When you spend with us, you are helping create a world where healthy wetland nature thrives and enriches lives.
Waterside Café is open from 10am daily with a range of homemade meals and snacks on offer. Don’t miss the NEW summer menu and check on site for freshly baked scones, cakes and more.
Enjoy unrivalled views of the stream channel and its native wildlife as you relax on our sun terrace, including goldeneye, barnacle geese and once-extinct Eurasian cranes.
Plus we have a children’s play area with Archimedes screw, nature kitchen and accessible sand pit, as well as an accessible toilet and baby change in the visitor centre.
Ready to visit?
If you're ready to explore Washington Wetland Centre this summer, find out more and plan your visit online.
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