Despite being a concrete jungle, London has some green spots, aside from the well-known Hyde Park. I believe Hyde Park is probably the largest park in central London, but there are other large parks around the city, such as Battersea Park, Holland Park, Richmond Park, and Regent's Park, to name a few. Some have wildlife, and most have a fair number of trees and garden spaces for flowers and plants. Some with ponds have a good number of waterfowl as well. And there are other types of parks that are small, neighbourhood green spaces that are great for people to meet at for a chat with friends or for kids to kick around a ball, parks that would likely be unknown to any tourist. In addition to these parks, there are also a surprising number of wetland areas, spaces that have been either preserved or restored to their former wetland status in order to preserve wetland ecosystems in the city. We visited one of them several months ago, the Walthamstow Wetlands, and it had at one time been a man-made reservoir area. Indeed, it's still surrounded by some industry, but I think given more time, it might hopefully look a little wilder than it does today. Run by the London Wildlife Trust, a subsidiary of the UK umbrella organisation known as The Wildlife Trusts, entry to this place was free. I thought that the WWT Wetlands would be the same, but it turns out there's an entry fee, and it's run by another organisation, called Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. It was a bit confusing, but in any case, we had read it was a large wetlands location and thought it would be worth seeing, so we were not opposed to paying the fee.
When we arrived, a volunteer greeted us at the starting point of the various walks, and I have to admit I was a little disappointed as soon as she said "we have several collections" of birds. In the UK, collections mean they have brought whatever the thing is from other countries back here for whatever purpose they have intended them for. Indeed, this is the British way, as evidenced by their large collections of archeological artefacts in the British Museum and natural artefacts (bones, skins/furs, etc.) found in the Natural History Museum, all with the intent to study them. In the case of natural artefacts, sometimes those studies almost led to the extinction of certain animals in some parts of the world because they were continually removed and/or killed for the purposes of study. However, with this type of collection, which is no different from zoos around the world, the collections are justified under the auspices of preservation, especially as some species are rare or decreasing in population and undergo controlled breeding practices to try to help re-populate these species. I have mixed feelings on the ethics of these practices, but I'm not here to debate that at the moment. For now, I'll say that the advantage of these situations is that the animals are not in cages, and it does give you the chance to see them up close, especially those from countries you may never get to or may never get to see in a natural area in such countries. And while in some ways, it reminded me of the "safari" I went to just outside Jakarta, at least there are more ethics here where you can't feed the animals. I was so horrified to find out that people feed the animals carrots and bananas all day long, which I'm sure is not healthy for them. And I can't see how it's safe. I remember having an ostrich stick its head through the car window waiting for a carrot, and I was scared it would peck my eyes out if I didn't give it one. Not cool, people; not cool. Anyway, the first album shown here is all the non-native species I saw.
One of the other things that was nice for me was to see some species from home and some species that exist naturally both here and in Alberta but that I actually haven't seen in person in Alberta, such as the greater scaup. Not native to the UK, I was also able to see a wood duck, which don't come as far north as Edmonton back home, and you have to go to Calgary or south of there to see them. So I've never seen one at home, but I did get to see it here! I have included them in the non-native category above, though, since they are native to my homeland area, but not native to where I live right now. However, here in this second album, I include the native bird species. Thankfully, I've photographed a male smeu elsewhere as I didn't get any good shots of one this time. They're almost all white and easy to over-expose with a non-professional camera.
The facility also has a otter program, so I was hoping to see them, but unfortunately they were sleeping, and there wasn't a single one in sight. Apparently they are out at feeding time, but by the time we got to them, we were there a couple of hours after they'd been fed, so by that time, they were apparently sleeping again. It would be nice to go back to see them sometime, as well as just to see what other birds might be there when summer comes. It's still early enough in spring, so there would be additional birds in their area where it's wild, an area where the birds are not captive.
You might wonder how birds are captive if not kept in cages, but they will actually not go far if they have a constant food source. We often hold the belief that birds migrate due to the cold, but the reality is that they migrate to follow food sources. A prime example, recently, is a pelican in Calgary that has stayed through 2 winters. It was likely injured and unable to migrate, but it lives at Frank Lake, which always has open water in the winter due to some pipeline, so it means that it has a continual source of fish from that part of the lake. As a result, the pelican has persisted through 2 Alberta winters, meaning migration is not a necessity when food is available. So the birds at this wetland are largely captive in that sense--they were brought here and get fed regularly and are made comfortable, so they don't have to go anywhere, even if they can fly away. The wild section is for birds that do not get fed. So they can come and go as they need. Obviously that area is for native birds.
I hope to get back to this location this summer, but for the time being, I plan to enjoy some of the other free wetland parks in London, of which there are 11 in total! I leave with a few non-bird photos :)
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