Tag: WWT Washington UK

After we’d visited NELSAM we still had a couple of hours of daylight so decided to visit WWT Washington Wetland Centre as it was only up the road from the museum and is always good for birds and otters.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust started out in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, and was set up by Sir Peter Scott, (son of Scott of the Antarctic).  Peter became an Olympic sailing medallist and a well-known painter and broadcaster. He created the IUCN red list which measures whether species are threatened or endangered. He was the founding chair of WWF – and even drew their famous panda logo.

The Trust is all about conservation of endangered species, and their mission is to save critically endangered species from extinction, work with communities around the world who depend on wetlands and inspire people to take care of nature.

There are 9 WWT’s across the UK and we are lucky enough to have one near Sunderland. I’ve done a few posts on this blog from the WWT but there’s always something new to see.

There is a pair of Black Swans at Washington, they have white wing tips and red bills with a white stripe on them.

We were very excited to see a kingfisher, as neither off us had seen one in the flesh before

Further up in that part of the lake a heron was also fishing

We went to see the asian short clawed otters at feeding time

The breeding programme at Washington is very successful and when the litters of the main pair grow up they are sent to other wetlands to diversify the gene pool.

Then we went to see the flamingos, my faves, but walked past the geese first,

The weather was deteriorating at this point so that was the end of our day out, but stay tooned to see where we end up next time!

all pics are clickable to embiggen.

Full album HERE