Valentine love birds: posh date vs cheep date
1.30pm - 4.30pm, Theatre
Impress your Valentine with a designer love nest… or a bird feeder from recycled materials.
Plus downloadable bird mating calls, fun e-cards, quirky lovers’ walks… and a great day out.
We've devised the perfect solution for a fun and totally different Valentine’s Day. On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 February we are giving visitors the chance to make something they can share with their garden birds as well as the special person in their life.
Posh date (for a classy bird)
Impress your bird with a posh date: visit London Wetland Centre to decorate your own nest box to take home. A personalised bird house makes a perfect gift for your Valentine (or anyone really!). Decorate your own bird box together and watch love blossom as the feathered friends in your garden pair up and raise a family.
Cheep (but cheerful) date
Alternatively, in these cash-strapped times, come on a 'cheep' (but cheerful) date, using recycled materials to make a bird feeder. Help your birds get through the winter; the way to a man's heart may be through his stomach but it's a trick that works for birds too! Watch the birds flock to your garden to feast on seeds and fat balls.
Decorating the nest box costs £12.99 per box and creating a bird feeder is £2 (suggested donation).
The romantic trail is free with admission. Normal entrance charges apply.
Lovers’ walks, mating calls and e-cards
London Wetland Centre is the perfect spot for a romantic walk amongst beautiful scenery. You can also follow a selection of romantic trails – which include saucy animal facts - around this wildlife haven. Follow the various trails that meander through the World Wetlands collection of rare and exotic birds. Will their colourful courtship displays and fascinating behaviour inspire you? Stroll through the series of ponds and pools in Wildside and take in the views before heading back for a tasty lunch in the cafe.
And don't forget, if your date goes really well London Wetland Centre is the perfect place for your wedding or civil partnership ceremony!
The walks have been created with the help of TV presenter, naturalist and ‘heartthrob’ Nick Baker. They make fun reading, and will give you immediate encyclopedic knowledge to amaze and impress your Valentine. You can also see how many of the wetland plants, birds or animals you can spot between you as you enjoy your romantic ‘lovers’ walk’.
Nick Baker said: “Wetland wildlife is surprisingly creative and ingenious when it comes to courtship activities - perhaps we can learn from nature. Have you ever heard the risqué call of an eider duck?”
Potential love-birds can beckon the object of their desire with a bird mating call and send a fun e-card. The e-cards with wacky photos combined with downloadable mating call ring tones will inspire, amuse and help vulnerable species and wetlands at the same time. With no paper involved - it’s good for the environment too.
There are eight mating call sound tracks that can be downloaded as mobile phone ring tones or combined with one of a selection of e-cards with fun images. You can choose the most appropriate mating call according to what kind of lover you are – or want to be!
Choose from romantic (the serenading song thrush), to authoritative (the booming bittern) or even the flirty (the cheeky eider).
Love Birds Twitter competition
Want to win one of five sets of beautiful bird stamps depicting UK species such as bittern, bearded tit and peregrine? Just tweet "I love @wwtlondon because..."
The authors of the five best or funniest tweets get the stamps.
Closing time is Friday 11 February 2011 at 5pm.
The prize is one set of 'UK species in recovery' bird stamps, issued 4 September 2007.
1) The competition is not open to WWT employees.
2) The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
3) You must be 18 or over to enter.
4) You must live within the UK.
5) Maximum one prize per person.
6) The organisers reserve the right to withdraw the competition at any time.
