Geograph - photograph every grid square

Images from a visit to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust [WWT] Caerlaverock Wetland Centre on a damp, grey day in mid-January 2016. The WWT has 10 wetland reserves and visitor centres in the UK Link. The WWT began as the Severn Wildfowl Trust, founded in 1946 at Slimbridge, on the south bank of the Severn estuary near Gloucester, by Sir Peter Scott, conservationist, ornithologist, champion glider pilot, Olympic sailor and artist.
The Caerlaverock centre is on the north shore of the Solway Firth, south of Dumfries. It is an important overwintering site for many wetland birds, especially Barnacle geese, Whooper swans, and ducks [especially Pintail, Teal, Wigeon and Scaup]. The large numbers of wetland birds attract raptors such as Peregrine falcon, Common buzzard and Hen harrier. The centre is part of the much larger Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve, which has a range of habitats – marine, mudflats, saltmarsh, and coastal grazings. Sunken walkways between hedges leading to observation points allow birds to be watched without disturbance. A daily feature not to be missed is the feeding of the large swan population, joined by the ducks and other hangers-on.