Reserve update - whilst we are closed let us bring the reserve to you
Whilst our Welney Wetland Centre is 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.
Whilst our Welney Wetland Centre is 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.
Water levels have now got to a point where we don’t want any more water off the reserve, so the balancing act of keeping it where it is needed most begins. Ideally we want mud that has the texture of chocolate cake for all the wading birds to be able to probe their bills into and find lots of yummy invertebrates – we wonder how many of you will now look up chocolate cake recipes. Hopefully the mud will retain this texture until we have chicks on the reserve – exciting!
Image below is of a ditch, brim-full to keep the washes wet where they need to be and plenty of water for aquatic flora.
Image below is of muddy marks left by hungry snipe
We now have 3 herds of cattle on Lady Fen and the river banks, totalling 110 animals. These guys are here to get the reserve just right for ground-nesting waders by grazing the vegetation to get a variety of heights and providing manure for insects.
Some more spring/summer arrivals and highlights this week include
whimbrel, bar-tailed godwit, grasshopper warbler, reed warbler and ringed
plover. The first breeding bird survey has been
completed on Lady Fen for April – plenty of snipe drumming in the
evenings, barn owls out hunting at dusk, indicating there might be
chicks to be fed already.
As part of our essential checks we are keeping on top of grounds maintenance around the visitor centre, hopefully keeping things ticking over until the professionals are allowed back on site.
Lyle Hide now has a new roof and footpath screen, this damage was dealt during the winter storms. So this area will be ready to use when we are finally able to reopen.
This weekend sees the launch of a new home learning hub on the website. New resources, covering different conservation science themes, will be released weekly on a Monday morning during lockdown – there are 10 mini lessons planned, with the first one starting Monday. Aimed at Primary education (5-7 year olds and then 7-11 year olds), these weekly lessons cover themes such as climate change, migration, wildlife identification, and habitats. Parents can click on the hub for a full theme list. The lessons are supported by visual resources, ‘how to make’ videos and fun quizzes.
