2022 at WWT: A year in images

January

By January, a total of 128 Bewick’s swans have arrived on the Slimbridge reserve, including 33 juveniles, making it the most successful breeding year since 1966.

March

March sees us welcome our Patron, HRH The former Prince of Wales to WWT Slimbridge, to celebrate our 75th Anniversary.

HRH The former Prince of Wales joins business leaders for the launch of a new initiative that reflects our ambition to create bigger, better and more connected wetlands to help fight the climate, biodiversity and wellbeing crises.

And that’s something these saltmarshes at WWT Steart are doing in bucketloads. It’s estimated they’re burying 10 thousand tonnes of carbon each year.

That’s the equivalent of taking 32,900 cars off UK roads for one year.

Also in March, a further 35 Madagascar pochards are released into the wild in the latest stage of our project to restore Madagascar’s wetlands, so they can support sustainable livelihoods for the communities who rely on them.

April

April sees the launch of our Curlew Appeal, which goes on to raise £130,000. Thanks to your fantastic generosity, we've been able to head-start and release 27 birds, pay for predator fences to protect nests and carry out important monitoring work. 

Thanks to you, we’ve also been able to upgrade our freshwater lagoon at Llanelli which has seen an amazing increase in birds, including the first ever arrival of a black-winged stilt.

May

WWT Steart becomes part of England’s largest ‘Super National Nature Reserve’. The Somerset Wetlands SNNR, will form the backbone for nature recovery in the Somerset Levels and provide a place where people can connect to outstanding wildlife.

June

Summer's a busy time for staff and volunteers on our reserves. Thanks to your support, we’re able to create special wetlands where species like these natterjack toads at Caerlaverock, can thrive. We record breeding at 11 ponds across the site, with a peak toadlet count of 98.

As BBC Springwatch descends on Castle Espie, a new parasitic fungus is discovered growing on a spider in an old Victorian gunpowder store on the reserve. It’s named Gibellula Bangbangus by viewers in honour of its place of discovery.  

With wildflower meadows like these in the Severn and Avon Vale floodplain becoming vanishingly rare we’re working with farmers to restore them to their full glory, to help ensure the survival of ground nesting birds like the curlew.

The end of June sees the last of our hand-raised black-tailed godwits being released in the fens. Over the five years of Project Godwit, evidence shows that the UK population of this critically endangered wetland bird is 40% larger than it would have been without this vital work.

Project Godwit was the first time headstarting was used as a technique to boost the population of an endangered UK bird and we couldn’t have done it without your support.

WWT Washington is ranked in the top 10 sites for common terns in Great Britain. They’re one of our key summer wildlife spectacles, with visitors to Wader Lake enjoying their aerobatic performances as they nest, breed and raise their young.  

As the heatwave finally breaks in August, this kingfisher is caught on camera enjoying the cooling rain at Arundel.

Two pairs nest on site, raising two broods each. They make use of Arundel’s two artificial nest banks, which replicate the steep sided riverbanks where kingfishers nest in the wild, a habitat that’s fast disappearing.

October

And they’re incoming...

As the weather cools, our reserves play host to thousands of overwintering birds who flock here to escape the harsh arctic winters.

Pink footed geese arrive at WWT Martin Mere and Caerlaverock from their Icelandic breeding grounds.

Barnacle geese arrive from Svalbard, off the coast of arctic Norway, to take up residence on the Solway Firth, using WWT Caerlaverock as a key site.

While at WWT Castle Espie, light-bellied brent geese busily feed up on eelgrass.

November

Better late than never….

The first Bewick’s of the season touch down at WWT Slimbridge on November 10th, making it their latest ever arrival since 1965.

December

In an exciting development, 2022 sees us welcome the charity’s first ambassadors. 

Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera join us from the birdwatching collective, Flock Together.

Academy award winning actor and playwright, Sir Mark Rylance is also appointed, vowing to work with us to get more people excited about wetlands.