Day Out to WWT Barnes 11th April 2012

Day Out to WWT Barnes 11th April 2012

While we were in London visiting relatives it seemed like a good chance to go out to Barnes to the Wetland Centre. I had only been once before and was keen to have a second look. It was a lovely, sunny day with just hints that it might rain occasionally but this had its downside as well as its upside. It has to be said about Barnes that there are very few parts of the site that cannot be visited with a pushchair and whilst this is great for disabled access it does mean that many of the hides and the environs generally can be dominated by mothers with very young children. When I was there I would guess that the majority of the visitors were young children for whom the site is a bit of a nature play park.

It is, of course, impractical to expect children of five and under to not run around screaming but I would imagine that it makes Barnes less of an attraction for birders than say Martin Mere which because of the very size of the site is able to satisfy both constituencies without them bothering each other much. This is a classic dilemma of many of the conservation reserves that are open to the public. In an attempt to attract as many people as possible and to make that experience comfortable for all their visitors the idea of a nature reserve with just a few draughty hides is old fashioned and now we start to see double-glazed, centrally heated hides with few window openings and the predominance of cafe’s and play parks. I don’t think it is possible to defend the sole rights of birders against all other comers, or birders over bird photographers etc. but it does show why some birders eschew such sites in favour of open countryside. Of course, in the open countryside you then have to contend with plenty of dog walkers and cyclists. (As it happens just after I wrote these words I read an article by Simon Barnes in the Summer 2012 issue of the RSPB magazine “Birds” which argues the case for open access) In the end you just have to accept that things can’t always be as you, yourself, would like it to be and clearly not all the birds object so much as I did manage to get some very nice sightings of the first migrant birds of spring.

I started out at the Dulverton Hide which had the usual suspects on the water. I then went on to the Peacock Tower where I had a good view of Sand Martins zipping over the water feeding and diving into the holes in the artificial sandbank. You cannot get “Inside” the sandbank during the early stages of nesting so I was limited to the front view but there was plenty of activity going on anyway.

As I got to the door of the Wader Scrape Hide I saw a Blackcap in the trees outside singing loud and clear. In the hide itself the picture was pretty much the same as from the other hides. They all face onto the same side of the main lake so this is probably always going to be the case. The one notable exception to this was seeing a pair of Wheatear feeding on the grassy bank to the right side of the hide. I spent at least half an hour because this was by far the best views I had had to date of these migrants. It was also a first for the year.

From there I walked back along the far side of the “Sheltered lagoon” returning via the feeder area. There were lots of birds singing – Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds, Starlings and tits. At the feeder station there was a Greenfinch and a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets. I stopped for a cup of tea back at the cafe where there was a small flock of Rooks. I did walk the other side of the site past the Headley Hide and the Wildside Hide but there wasn’t much different to see and I was starting to tire of the number of young children running and screaming all around so I headed back home. In a sense it would have been better to go a couple of weeks later when more of the migrants had returned but I was happy enough with the Sand Martins and the Wheatears.

Bird Sightings : Barnes : Dulverton Hide

Bird Sightings : Barnes : Peacock Tower

Bird Sightings : Barnes : Wader Scrape Hide

Bird Sightings : Barnes : Environs

Bird Sightings : Barnes : Feeder Station