Our Annual Pilgrimage to Welney

12th January 2020

Mid-January so time for our annual visit to WWT Welney for our fix of Whooper Swans. As we approached the reserve along Bate's Drove a small mixed flock of Mute and Whooper Swans were feeding on the winter crop right next to the road so an opportunity to use the car as a hide. What a good start to the day!!

In the car park a Robin was singing his heart out believing that the warm sunshine was the herald of Spring and in the reed bed by the visitor's centre Reed Buntings were doing what they do best.......hanging about in reeds.

Today, only the main hide was open due to flooding along the trails and the ducks in front of the hide were limited to Mallard, Tufted Ducks and Pochard. Further out were flocks of Shoveler and Wigeon, but they kept their distance and the only photographic opportunities were flight shots

The Mallards congregate on the shore in front of the hide as they are fed grain twice a day, or to be more specific pinch the grain thrown out for the swans as part of the Swan Feeds.

The Tufted Ducks are vastly out-numbered by the Pochard by a factor of some 20:1, but are now reaching peak condition in readiness for the breeding season. Unfortunately the one in the second photo was obviously having a bad hair day.

Pochard was by far the most numerous duck in front of the hide, with the males significantly outnumbering the females. This because the vast majority of female Pochards over-winter in Spain. Just look at that piercing red eye of the males.

As is the case for most ducks the females are fairly drab compared to the males, but have a beautiful subtle pastel colouration.

Also plenty of action.

So now on to the swans. What I like about photographing swans at Welney is that when the sun is out the dark blue water provides a perfect background. This Mute Swan is a good example.

There are quite a few Mute Swans here, but they are totally outnumbered by the Whooper Swans which fly in for the Winter from Iceland. Bewick Swans are also found at Welney but are not often seen in front of the hide, spending most their day out in the fields and roosting on other parts of the reserve. When I was young and saw my first Bewicks and Whoopers in London Zoo, I remember thinking that the yellow on the bill looked as though it had been painted on. I still do.

The juveniles are a pale grey compared to the brown juvenile Mute Swans. On this individual you can see brown staining on the undersides. This staining is picked up in their feeding grounds in Iceland. It washes off in the clean water at Welney in about three days, so this individual is clearly a new arrival.

These Whooper Swans are on Lady Fen behind the visitors centre and are attracted by the potatoes that are put out for them.

Wow, what a fantastic day.........but there's more!! Because the trails were flooded and only the main hide was open, we booked a place on the Hare Walk. The walk was led by Warden Letty Grant and supported by Jess from the Project Godwit team and after only a few minutes I began to realise just little I knew about the Brown Hare.

First of all I never realised that, like the Rabbit, they are not native to the UK and had been introduced. In fact the only native rabbit/hare in the UK is the Mountain Hare. Also they box all the year round and not only in March when they become the mad March hares. They were boxing on our walk in the middle of January.

Well that is now truly the end. Thank you to Letty and Jess for a perfect end to a superb visit to Welney, and well done WWT Welney for giving us a complimentary ticket to be used by the end of March because the other hides weren't open due to flooding. Very much appreciated.