London Wetland Centre

Websites:
http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/wetlandcentre
http://www.londonwetlandcentre.co.uk

I've wanted to visit the London Wetland Centre for years. It's a massive expanse of "wetland" conservation area located next to the river Thames in west London. Today ABJ and I finally gave it a visit.

Arriving at about 2pm we bought our £6 student tickets at the entrance and set off into the courtyard. Immediately we were greeted by a friendly woman who orientated us on the map and explained the different areas of the wetland. There are two main sides to the site: one has endangered species and one does not.

We began with the endangered species side. This started with "World Wetlands" and was home to wetlands and birds from all around the world. The wetlands included Asian rice paddies, North American pine forests, Islands, Arctic Tundra etc. The different areas are fenced off from each other so the birds can't go between them (presumably the birds wings are clipped!).

The first stop, Artic Tundra, was one of the liveliest wetlands because there were so many different types of birds and no fence to keep them off the paths. The ducks and birds all squarked and flapped their wings at each other and at us. We watched different types of birds sticking together in close groups - each group trying to dominate the others.
Dotted throughout the center there were also lots of bird-photographers with enormous zoom lenses:The birds in the centre included an impressive variety of species. There were "red-breasted geese", "black swans", "chiloe wigeons" and hundreds of others I can't remember the names of:
I can identify this one... a Black Swan:Some "Red-crested Pochards":The wetlands certainly lived up to their name. There were paths passing between the rushes and lakes. The place was very well sign-posted and each area had a different name and welcoming illustrations:Dotted around the centre were also lots of hides. From inside you could watch the birds without them knowing:There were lots of signs saying "Please keep quiet in the hides. Birds have ears too." ABJ and I didn't have any binoculars so the hides unfortunately didn't offer us the chance to get spectacularly close to any of the birds.

We spent a long time enjoying the different areas, the hides and the birds before eventually returning to the courtyard where we began.

Here we tried out the "Discovery centre" which, along with an informative display in one of the hides, educated us about what a wetland is and why they're important. The definition of a wetland is very wide (e.g it includes the Thames estuary as well as coral reefs) but an important thing, apparently, is that the water is less than 6ft deep. The Discovery centre had a fun walk-through display in which you walked through different environments and had to decide if they counted as wetlands (e.g. a coral reef, a flooded forest etc). Unsurprisingly perhaps most of the environments were wetlands.

After the walk-through there was a very fun display about what wetlands do and why they're important. The display was set up like an old-fashioned fairground with games and shows. To give you an idea there was one game called "Shoot your poo":
The aim of the game was to get small plastic balls (i.e. your poo) into holes by firing them through air guns. This illustrated the powerful way in which wetlands can process waste.

Another game involves firing water guns into pipes to illustrate that life needs water. There was a game whose opening premise was "You're a planning officer". Not very inspiring but it made a good point. You had to decide how to build flood defences and where to build houses on a scaled down model. The model had a mountain at one end and a flood plain at the other and periodically the mountain would be heavily rained on and a wall of water would deluge the flood plains. There were lego bricks available to build defences to save the foam houses. Very eduational.

After ABJ thought I'd had enough of the games we continued on our way to the other side of the centre - the non-endangered species side. This was good although less spectacular - mainly because it seemed the birds on this side didn't have their wings clipped (since they were non-endangered). That meant the birds had flown away and a lot fewer were on display in the lakes and marshes.

We journeyed on and visited a few more hides, watched a few birds flying around, watched a few jumbo jets flying overhead towards Heathrow airport. Dusk fell and we were tired from all our walking. We visited the gift shop and bought a few things to support the centre. To get back home we decided to take the number 283 bus, a.k.a "the Duck Bus". This left conveniently from a stop at the centre and off we went.

Summary: Well worth a visit. The birds at the centre change at different times of the year so it's worth going again during a different season.