A shrike in Fakenham; thoughts about Welney

After Saturday's ridiculous Norfolk coast jaunt we'd arranged to meet up with Hannah's old boss from the zoo at one of his regular places, Welney WWT. Driving from the coast to Welney would take us pretty much right past the great grey shrike at Fakenham, and it would be rude not to stop and look at it, no?

After some incredibly shit directions from people leaving the site we eventually found it, but it was distant. I'm always surprised at how small shrikes are. Not an awful lot to say about it really; it showed well enough in a "I'm a shrike and I'm not doing much" way. Paler than the Stow-Maries bird though, with more white. I think. Also both red-legged and grey partidges present, but not a lot else.

WWT Welney. Whooper and Bewick's Swans by the bucket load. But it's, well... I don't know. I don't get it.

Sure, the WWT might raise awareness and money for worthwhile conservation causes both at home and abroad. Their very existence for so long implies that they are successful, at raising money at least, and if this is put back into conservation I guess it can only be a good thing. Before get into this, a couple of points. One, if you happen to know more about this field than me - highly likely - please leave a comment, either putting me right or simple plain abuse. I don't mind, it's up to you. And two, before I start talking total shit, I feel I should mention that there are a lot of things I like about the WWT... but Welney isn't one of them.

Cue lots of ill-informed speculation from a poorly educated borderline retard with no background in conservation and only a scant knowledge of charities:

It doesn't feel so much a reserve as it does an open zoo. I bet in summer it's different - the breeding black-tailed godwits are no doubt fantastic to see and are as wild as any other bird that relies on a managed reserve for breeding habitat - but in winter, I can't help but feel somewhat uneasy about watching a whole population of whooper swans acting like the disgusting feral farmyard geese/ducks at the local park. I do appreciate that management of land and species is essential, especially in a country so intenstively used as ours, but these swans have lost some of their "wildness". Compare the whoopers up by the feeding station to the bewick's, quietly and warily sitting at the very end of the reserve - you watch them scrabbling and fighting for grain and while you know they've come from many hundreds of miles away you certainly don't feel it. It's pure spectacle. And yes, it's undeniably impressive in it's own way, but it's not wild.

This is one of my big speculations: I certainly can't believe that the average family visiting Welney and watching the swan feed leaves the site any "closer" to nature or with any more of a connection to - and hopefully therefore a drive to protect - our natural environment. They can gain a very similar (and considerably cheaper) experience at their local park with a loaf of bread. I think that it's the wildness that sets these swans apart from their mute cousins, and it's that same wildness that sets a "nature experience", for want of a better phrase, apart from a "local park experience". And following on from this, I think that it's these "nature experiences", getting people inspired by wildlife when, crucially, it's being wild, that might encourage people to learn more about and then help to protect nature. And surely that, getting people to value and care about nature, is as important as getting them to give you money? So far as I'm aware, conservation projects the world over work best when the people local to that being conserved value, and are engaged with, their natural environments.

Of course it's worth mentioning that I'm not necessarily against nature reserves feeding "their" birds. Feeding bitterns in prolonged hard winter spells is undeniably a good thing. Or, last winter, seeding the freshmarsh at Titchwell; it provided food and habitat for some threatened and seriously declining birds like twite. I just think that at Welney at least the WWT have gone too far towards providing a zoo-like visitor experience at the expense of the wildness, and therefore, if you follow my speculations, at the expense of a visitor's connection to the wildlife we have. The frustrating thing is that with a bit of thought I've no doubt that you could feed the swans and provide guaranteed, good close views while maintaining the all important wild feel that might make people learn and feel more.

Of course, it's very possible that I'm the only person who's left a bit cold by the swan feeds and thinks that they might not really be true wild birds. And I can't really argue that the feeding is a bad thing, or even back any of this stuff up with facts, numbers or information. But that's not stopped me before and I am left with a bad feeling by Welney.

I'll say it again. I might be totally wrong. Somebody with more than half a normal adult's intelligence might well be able to dismiss all my points. If you're that person, please do comment. I won't swear at you much. Just be aware that if you don't post, and I'm sure you won't, I'm going to chalk the inevitable lack of comments up to my being right, not a lack of blog readers or anything.

Gosh. I'm very thinky today.

Whatever. If, like me, you like seeing swans but don't like Welney then by all means, use the cafe (it's quite good) and while you're there enjoy the tree sparrows in the carpark and the corn buntings that dropped into the reeds to roost. Then drive round the fens and find your own swans. On any short drive in that area you can expect numerous groups several hundreds strong. It's cheaper, too. And you might even see a merlin chasing a skylark right over the car like we did. Oh, and we also saw a bunch of goosanders.

On the site itself, apart from the swans, we counted 34 white-fronted geese, a peregrine doing what they do best - nothing - and around 400 black-tailed godwits. And two snipe. Exciting.

Oh yeah, I promised stuff about white-fronts pooing. Next time.