Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre Welney gets ready to re-open

Staff and volunteers at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Welney have been busy in recent weeks preparing the centre ready for visitors when it reopens on Monday April 12.

In its latest online blog the WWT Welney team explains what has been happening behind the scenes as we move out of winter and into spring.

It explains that as water levels drop away and the change of winter birds for summer takes place, staff have focused on making the reserve ready to receive visitors again.

Great progress has been made thanks to staff and volunteers who have been clearing the debris left after winter flooding and repairing much of the visitor facilities ahead of re-opening.

As flood water doesn’t just come from rainfall on the reserve, a whole manner of items get carried in on the water from further up the Ouse Washes and beyond.

So the first task in clearing the paths was to move cut vegetation from the path and grass verges, to create piles of plant matter in amongst the willow trees on the screen bank – this mulches down becoming a home and food source for insects and in turn small birds. Any plastics or non-natural materials are collected to be disposed of.

Once this has taken place, a digger is used to remove the layer of sediment which has settled along the path, and move any larger items back to their original location, or ready to be collected by tractor and trailer.

Viewing points along the screen bank have also been created to give more landscape views across the washes, between the hides. Then the finer detail of edging and relaying can begin on the surface of the paths, so that access is possible to the hides and benches for all.

Repairing gateways and stock fencing alongside the paths was completed whilst water levels were still dropping across the rest of the reserve. The power of water to carry some of the larger structures like a quadbike bridge is impressive, but it takes time to relocate it.

The blog adds: "It is wonderful to welcome back our volunteers to help us with these tasks as well as to give them the chance to reconnect with the reserve after such a long time away.

"We all missed out on spring 2020, which makes the arrival of summer birds all the more exciting this year, from avocets and black-tailed godwits to garganey, yellow wagtail and swallows.

"Towards the end of March, we have seen the first Project Godwit birds touching down.

"Avocet numbers are on the increase, oystercatchers, redshank, ruff and snipe are busily feeding up ahead of breeding season, whilst lapwing are already on nests."

The centre is preparing welcome back the Project Godwit team ready for this season.

And the blog concludes: "We appreciate it will be a while yet before some of our members and visitors are able to come back in person so we will be putting a monthly roundup onto the website to continue bringing you the latest news. Our latest sightings pages will also return to being posted daily once we have reopened - until then we will bring you the seasonal highlights as frequently as we can."

To find out more of what is happening at WWT Welney visit: https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/welney