Wild and Wet

I spent a few very enjoyable hours yesterday morning at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust visitor centre at Washington (Tyne and Wear, not D.C.!). While I was still teaching I led a few school outings to the centre, and I was impressed by how it has changed in the last few years. Although a major part of what the centre is about is the captive wildfowl collection, that isn’t all there is to it. The habitat management makes the area excellent for wild birds and the feeding station had an impressive number of birds visiting it. There were so many Bullfinches, Nuthatches, tits and finches that it was almost impossible to decide which feeder to watch. I was very interested to hear about the captive breeding programmes the centre is undertaking as well. And the upshot of my visit? Northern Experience will be offering some exciting new birdwatching activities in 2009, and WWT Washington will be a part of that.