Welney Wetlands Centre

on the 1st April 2025 Sally and myself stayed at an on site cottage for two days on the Wetlands Centre. We had a good time in great weather and I got the shots that I was hoping to capture luckily. High on my list was the Short-eared Owl and Marsh Harrier. The Short-eared Owl was caught on the fen around 6pm by the Centre when it was closed. The Marsh Harriers was visible but distant on the first day but on the second day we had many encounters much closer from using the hides. Other species I got was Whooper Swan, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Avocet, Redshank, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Black-tailed Godwit, Coot and Moorhen, along with a few others. I also got a few distant shots of Roe Deer which I wasn’t expecting and Sally got sightings of a hare and stoat.

The staff there was friendly and very helpful and provided a moth trap for me to try out, a first experience for me, despite doing a lot of macro work I’ve never used a moth trap. It’s easy to carefully take out the moths and position them onto a natural setting as being early in the morning it’s too cold for them to function properly till their temperatures warm up. I caught about 30 moths, I wasn’t expecting that many being windy and early in the season. I got around 3 different species two which I ID’d as ‘Hebrew Character’ moth and ‘Muslin Moth’. Both common species but nice to use a new technique and it’s got me thinking of making my own trap to use at home … watch this space! I can fully recommend to take a visit.

Here is a link to the centre. https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/welney

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