Wheldrake Ings

[Adam Firth]

My local patch for the last four years has been Wheldrake Ings, North Yorkshire.
After the gorgeous summer we've enjoyed this Year the pools at Wheldrake have completely dried out. This has obviously led to the bird life in the area being a lot less varied than when the pools offer habitat for waterfowl , waders and all manner of birds relying on the water been present.
Is this "drought" likely to have a long term effect on the birds at Wheldrake or will the winter floods (hopefully) restore the ballance quickly?
Last year around this time I was enjoying Buff Breasted Sandpiper along with Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers and Pectoral Sandpipers and Whledrake and the adjacent Bank Island reserve. No such luck for the coming Autumn I fear.

[Andrew]

:hi: Adam, firstly, welcome to a great website. You seem to have a cracking local patch there. I hope you have a good few birds this autumn.

[Nina P]

Hello Adam, With any luck it will rain soon and refill the pools, It seems that it either rains like hell and drowns everything, or droughts dry up all the reservoirs in your area. I do hope the balance returns soon for your delectation. We have had the dryest summer I have ever known too but we still, have a good supply of water here.
My bones are screaming rain imminent but so far not happening, but you can bet when it starts it won't know when to stop. Nina.

[cuddy]

Site i have yet to visit Adam , but i hope to get there one day and i hope it recovers soon this dry spell is a pain we are the same up here some ponds have dried out completely, others sre hanging on by a thread.

[birdman]

Hi Adam,

On behalf of all the Moderators and the Admin team, a BIG WELCOME to BirdForum :t:

As a Doncaster lad, I have paid a trip to Wheldrake (perhaps too, the memoriy's a bit foggy!) and it gets a real good write up the WTWBI Yorkshire.

I look forward to reading your Local Patch posts - and picking up a few pointers!

Cheers

[Birdstarr]

Bearded Tit showed agian today. A lovely male. There's a lot of work going on at the moment though so a lot of birds are getting disturbed and the water levels are ver low.

[Birdstarr]

Water levels have increased a bit this week so there are plenty of wildfowl about but viewing them can be a bit tricky due to vegetation. Bank Island has also filled up a bit.