Birds & Wildlife
Being so close to the Wash it’s not surprising that the area is one of the best places in the country to watch birds. The salt marshes and mud flats of the Wash have the reputation as the country’s most important habitat for wader, wildfowl and raptors. The Boston Wash Banks project is now underway to improve flood defences and allow the sea to reclaim 78 hectares of farmland as saltmarsh. Some of the material used to build the Wash Banks was taken from a site at Freiston Shore and this has now been turned into a 12 hectare lagoon with islands managed by the RSPB. This is the biggest example of such a project in the UK and over 150 bird species are recorded here each year. In the summer visitors can see breeding birds like redshanks, avocets and ringed plover and in the winter there are geese, short-eared owls and hen harriers. At high tide, flocks of birds roost here until they can return to their feeding grounds of the Wash. Wildlife lovers will be captivated by the area known as the Ouse Washes on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border. The Washes lie between the Old & New Bedford Rivers or Hundred Foot Drains which were cut to drain the flooded Fens allowing surplus water to ‘wash’ over onto the land between. There are 2 centres for visitors who would like to take a closer look at the wildlife, the RSPB reserve at Welches Dam and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre at Welney which was founded by Sir Peter Scott in the 1960s. The Ouse Washes provide a winter home for thousands of Bewick swans, Widgeon, Teal and Pochard and in the summer for wading birds including the Black-tailed Bodwits. The traditionally managed meadows around the Welney reserve offer an ample food supply for Lapwing, Snipe, Redshank, Swallows, Swift and Martins and other insect-eating birds. A new state-of-the-art visitor centre is now open and has improved customer access and facilities. Experience a "fentastic" day out and download our ideas for Birds & Butterflies (PDF) |
