Water levels improving
What a wet year 2012 turned out to be! Unfortunately it is not always good weather for ducks as proved at WWT Welney. For the majority of the year there was too high a level of water on the Ouse washes, firstly effecting breeding birds with two spells of flood waters increasing on the reserve in the spring. Then the water was difficult to remove from the reserve leaving a small window of opportunitiy to get the essential management works completed with the cattle grazing. Finally it still didn't stop raining in autumn or winter so the flood waters rose quickly on already saturated ground.
The water levels are currently receding nicely on the Ouse washes so we hopefully will be able to start thinking about opening footpaths and hides over the next week or two. We will of course keep the website updated on any developments. In the mean time the photos with this article should go some way to displaying the height of water we have had over the last couple of months.
