Reserve update - bringing wetland wildlife to you
Welney Wetland Centre is now re-opened for pre-booked visits only with limited numbers. We have a smaller than normal team on site at present, but will continue to bring the reserve to you on the website and social media until you are able to visit.
Welney Wetland Centre is now
re-opened for pre-booked visits only, with daily maximum numbers to maintain
social distancing and safety measures. We have a smaller than normal team on
site at present, but will continue to bring the reserve to you on the website
and social media until you are able to visit.
Great feedback from members, non-members staff and volunteers that have visited so far – we are still the destination for many first trips away from home as well as seeing some regulars for second or third visits. If you haven’t come out to Welney since lockdown and would like to, we would say come and see us and don’t put off a visit. We have all the safety measures in place and there is plenty of room for the numbers we are currently seeing through the doors.
Water levels have been high on the pools recently after the stormy downpours, but levels are dropping now revealing lots of lovely mud for wading birds. Green sandpiper, common sandpiper, black-tailed godwit, avocet, redshank, oystercatcher, little ringed plover, little egret and great white egret have all been on the main lagoon this week. There are still broods of ducklings about on the reserve with two broods of gadwall, and the brood of shelduck at Lyle are getting pretty big now. Two cranes have been visiting the reserve this week, and the whooper swan cygnets are all doing well.
Dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies are still out on the wing this week, but getting a bit of a battering from the wind and rain……as are the wildflowers. The photo below shows a patch of fringed water-lily which can be viewed from Nelson-Lyle hide.
We now have 482 cows on the reserve. Some of the herds are right in front of the hides, poaching the edges of the lagoon pools and grazing the islands.
This week we've seen a few families visiting after learning about wetlands during home schooling this week. We've enjoyed seeing posts by Rackham Primary School on twitter as they learn about their local wetlands too.
