Wildfowl & Wetland Trust, Welney, Norfolk Tuesday 25th November 2014
It’s been about a week since we last went out. I’ve been suffering with a bad back and neck and being in the car has been so painful. We did have one trip out on the way back from shopping in Thetford but I was in such agony that we didn’t stay long. We stopped in one of our usual places in Thetford Forest and we could hear plenty of bird life but I think most of it was in the tree canopy. We did, however see a few birds, several Treecreepers and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker but we didn’t stay long.
I was really pleased when Jan said that we had re-joined The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust; one of my few ambitions is to go around all of their nine reserves (one can always live in hope). We decided to go to Welney, our first visit there since August 2013. It was a bit of a cold misty morning but it is late November after all and we have only just had our first two frosts, yesterday and today. It was about 6C when we set out from home but as we travelled across the Fens towards Welney that dropped to 5C.
A Map Of Welney WWT
We saw three Jays and a Kestrel en route and then as we got closer to Welney, near Southery we came across a few fields that were enshrouded in mist. The first two contained a few hundred Whooper Swans and the next quite a few Lapwings enjoying the fruits of a freshly ploughed field. It was difficult to see exactly how many Lapwings there were because they blended in so well with the soil and as it was a first plough the furrows were quite deep. Further along the road we saw a couple of Little Egrets and some Pheasants.
It’s hard to imagine that this fertile agricultural land was once all under water and has been reclaimed by us. It is such an important environment not just for the wildlife but also for humanity. Here is what the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetland Trust) say about Wetlands
“Wetlands are amazing. Where land meets water, there’s more wildlife than almost anywhere on the planet. Animals literally queue to get into wetlands. They’re great places to get close to wildlife. They’re places to relax, be inspired and feel at one with the world around you.
But below the surface, wetlands also do a lot of really clever stuff:
· They can supply our drinking water – and help to clean it before it goes into our rivers and reservoirs for drinking.
· They can use the filtered-out nutrients to produce a stunning array of wetland wildlife and beautiful inspiring landscapes.
· They can provide us with raw materials and food – more than half the world relies on wetland-grown rice for their staple diet.
· They can protect us from flooding by storing rainfall and buffering us from the sea.
· Sadly, most of our wetlands have been lost and the remaining ones are very vulnerable to damage. They’re often seen as wastelands or non-productive land so they’re filled in or destroyed, without people realising the wider impact for plant, animal and human life.
· But there’s hope. Unlike ancient woodland and rainforest that take centuries to regenerate, new technology means WWT can create new wetlands in a matter of months and years. It’s an area where your support can make a real splash.
10 wetland facts to knock your wellies off:
1. Wetlands are good for you. Studies have shown that being near water helps ill people to recuperate faster, and being around nature reduces stress levels. Put water and nature together and you get a wetland!
2. Peat wetlands alone store more carbon in the soil than rainforests do. They store a third of the world’s total despite only taking up 3 per cent of the world’s surface.
3. Wetlands have amazing biodiversity. All life needs water and nearly all of it needs land too at some point. More than 100,000 species of animal rely on freshwater ecosystems alone (half of which are insects!).
4. Wetlands help to provide most of the world’s drinking water by slowly feeding into our rivers, reservoirs and groundwater. The USA’s Environment Protection Agency says “Wetlands are the foundation of our nation’s water resources”.
5. Wetlands help to clean our drinking water. They can remove up to 60 per cent of metals in the water, trap and retain up to 90 per cent of sediment from runoff and eliminate up to 90 per cent of nitrogen.
6. Wetlands power industry. It takes 8,000 litres of water to make a pair of leather shoes – including feeding and supporting a cow and processing its hide into leather.
7. Wetlands are financially valuable. They provide us with a huge amount of services for free, including cleaning our water and buffering us from floods. If we had to meet these costs ourselves, economists estimate the opportunity cost in the UK would be at least £6.7bn – which we’d have to meet through higher prices and taxes.
8. Wetland plants are used extensively in medicine. More than 80 per cent of the world’s population relies on traditional medicines from plants and animals.
9. Sadly, England has lost 90 per cent of its wetlands in the last 400 years. Currently 57 per cent of freshwater and wetland species for which we have sufficient data have declined, and 29 per cent have declined strongly.
10. The world has lost about half its wetlands in the last 100 years. Most of the losses in the UK and globally are due to wetlands being drained for agriculture or to be built upon.”
Today was also a big day for me because on our last visit I had to use a mobility scooter today I was going to attempt to do it under my own steam (with just the aid of two walking sticks). It would be only to the Main Observatory but to me it was like climbing Mt. Everest and to say that I was feeling a bit apprehensive, was an understatement.
We began by having some soup and a roll in the cafeteria and watching the birds on the feeders directly under the windows. We saw Moorhen, Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Dunnock, Blue and Great Tits.
Then we made the short walk across the bridge, which spans the road and The Hundred Foot Drain from The Visitor Centre to the Main Observatory. I was really pleased to get to the other side. When we got to the hide I was surprised how much water was on the reserve, in all the times we’d been there over the years I had never seen so much water. It was almost unbroken to the banks of the River Ouse with just a few small outcrops of land sticking above the water. On the plus side there were plenty of birds.
Male Pochard
Female Pochard
Rather than going straight into the Main Observatory we began in one of the side hides. As we looked out from this part of the hide we could see plenty of Pochard, which were mainly males but there were a few females. As we learnt later the females prefer to spend the Winter in Spain. There were also Whooper Swans, Mute Swans, Mallard, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Greylag Geese, Canadian Geese, Widgeon and Lapwing all within viewable distance. We filmed a few videos before moving into the main part of the Main Observatory. This is birdwatching first class. There are windows and comfortable seating and heating although thankfully, that wasn’t on today.
Whooper Swan
Whooper Swan Family
Birdwatching By Floodlight
Now being able to see more of the reserve from here we could see lots more Swans (both Whooper and Mute), Tufted Duck, a Great Black-backed Gull, Coots, Moorhen and various Gulls that were a bit too far away to identify properly. Also during our stay there we saw a Kestrel and a Marsh Harrier.
A Kestrel Watches Over The Wildfowl
We stayed until after the afternoon Swan feed which was at 3.30pm and began to make our way back home just after 4pm. Before we left Jan tried to make an audio recording of the Whooper Swans returning to the reserve after their day on the fields. We were told that there was about 1000 Whooper Swans and 100 Bewick Swans on the reserve at the moment although these numbers will increase substantially over the coming weeks.
Fading Daylight At Welney
We had had a thoroughly good afternoon and it was just so good to be out again. I was also feeling very pleased with myself that I had managed to walk to and from the Main Observatory. There are already a few new videos on our YouTube Channel but there will be more over the next few days.
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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