News
WWT warns Parliament about invaders
WWT has urged MPs to help create a fit for purpose framework that can ban damaging invasive species from being sold in the UK. WWT regularly advises MPs on wetland matters - though they only have to look out the window to
30 January 2014
Nice weather for ducks!
Record numbers of water birds are being seen at some WWT Wetland Centres due to the mild, wet winter. While heavy rains and flooding are causing misery for thousands of people, some wetland species are actually benefitting from sodden ground while it’s
27 January 2014
Highest tide at Slimbridge in more than 30 years
The River Severn estuary alongside the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge has risen to the highest level any staff and volunteers can remember since 1982. Thousands of birds gather above the WWT Slimbridge W
3 January 2014
Alarming disappearances among our familiar countryside birds
The latest State of the UK's Birds report, published today, reveals many of our most familiar countryside birds are undergoing sweeping changes with some experiencing 'plummeting population declines', compared with the 1990s. It is now known that in som
9 December 2013
The Festival of Swans
Well, what a busy weekend! As part of WWT Welney wetland centre annual weekend ‘Festival of swan’s’ we held one of our open Flock Together workshop sessions down in the pond room. It was a really special session because the Fenland Poet Laureate, Le
28 November 2013
Environment important for economy - WWT CEO
WWT CEO Martin Spray with Dr Elaine King of Wildlife and Countryside Link and Zac Goldsmith MP “The future of the economy depends on our natural resources”, WWT’s Chief Executive Martin Spray CBE has told Govern
20 November 2013
Hand-reared spoon-billed sandpiper spotted after flying quarter-way round the world
A rare hand-reared spoon-billed sandpiper has been spotted for the first time in the wild, more than 8,000km from where it was released. 25 of the critically endangered birds have been raised over two years by a conservation team from WWT and Birds Russia
20 November 2013
Prime Minister must do more for nature, leading environmental groups warn
The Government is failing to deliver nearly a third of its natural environment commitments, despite huge public support for action for nature, wildlife and the countryside. The Government’s performance in protecting our environment has come under scruti
19 November 2013
WWT-ringed goose makes record journey south
A barnacle goose who failed to turn up at his overwintering grounds at WWT Caerlaverock Wetland Centre in Scotland has turned up safe and well – a record 900 miles further south in Spain! It’s the furthest south that a barnacle goose has ever been rec
1 November 2013
Record sightings spell good news for spoon-billed sandpipers
A record total of 140 spoon-billed sandpiper and 1,200 Nordmann’s greenshank have been surveyed on the coast north of Shanghai, China, strengthening the case to protect the intertidal wetlands there from development. The survey, organised by SBS in Chin
31 October 2013
Flock Together at Downham Market Library
In view of the terrible storm predictions yesterday morning, we did wonder whether anyone would venture out to join our session at Downham Market Library and just as we were unpacking the rain began and hope of a busy session became increasingly diminishe
29 October 2013
Swans beat storm to find sanctuary at WWT
Seven Bewick’s swans made it through the major storm sweeping Britain and completed their migration from the arctic to WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire just as the worst of the violent weather hit. Migrating birds are facing 80mph southe
28 October 2013
WWT and Project Wild Thing connect children and nature
WWT wetland centres are offering families a safe place for your kids to take a first step into nature, following several research papers* confirming children are becoming disconnected from the natural world they live in. Figures show: More than 70 per ce
25 October 2013
An evening with the Swavesey and Over Conservation Society (SOCS)
This week we visited the Swavesey and Over Conservation Society. The talk had a very autumnal feel-especially when one member walked in with a crate full of apples! The meeting started with Francis kindly introducing myself and Karen to the group
12 October 2013
Wetland Calligraphy at Southery Primary School
On Wednesday 18th September, the Flock Together project went and visited a Southery primary School. With us we took our usual array of paraphernalia, including swans wings and Bob the Bewick’s swan, but also loads of wetland materials so that the cla
12 October 2013