Swan nesting near the new Woodberry Wetland Centre

There is a brand new wetland centre in North London - Woodberry Wetlands - at Manor House and it was opened last week by Sir David Attenborough.

The wetland consists of a reservoir that has been attractively styled with walkways, reed beds and a new cafe.  The main entrance is at one end and there is a path along one side of the reservoir.  There is another entrance/exit at the end of the path and this leads to a narrow waterway with another path that will take you back to the main entrance.  On the other side of this narrow waterway are swanky new apartment blocks.

There is a second reservoir on the other side of the road to the wetlands main entrance, but this is not part of the nature reserve, and is used for sailing.  The narrow waterway also runs along the side of this reservoir.

Just a stone's throw from the posh new nature reserve, under the bridge across the road that separates the two reservoirs and on the narrow waterway, I found a beautiful swan on a large nest that was partly made up of rubbish.

Swan on nest under the road bridge dividing the 2 reservoirs at Woodberry Down

 When I downloaded my photographs onto the computer, I was shocked to see just how much rubbish was also in the water in front of the nest.  A coot is swimming along by an old tyre, some metal object and a glass bottle.  Near the swan's reflection there is a ball, plus other junk - and just look at all the bags, cartons and tins in that are part of or near to the nest.

Swan on nest of rubbish with Coot swimming amongst other rubbish

The coot is obviously building a nest as it has a stick in it's beak - what a place to bring up youngsters and all provided by careless human beings!

Swan nest and Coot amongst the junk

Mute Swan on large nest

No wonder the swan looks fed up!

Mute Swan on top of large nest with added junk and rubbish

We should be ashamed of ourselves!  Why can't we dispose of our unwanted things in the proper places - rubbish bins - instead of throwing them into the river?

And this is right next door to a new nature reserve that was opened by a major environmentalist - Sir David Attenborough.

Woodberry Wetland Centre - Coots and Great Crested Grebe

On Sunday I went to the newly-opened Woodberry Wetland Centre in Manor House, north London.  It was a really hot sunny day and it was almost like being at Piccadily Circus, but much nicer, as so many people had come out for a walk with their children.  However, I did manage to take a photograph without having any of them in it - instead, to add to the nature, I got a view of the local church spire and some London buildings, including the Shard.

Woodberry Wetlands with view local church and the Shard

 On that day, the reservoir seemed to contain a lot of gulls and hardly anything else.  The nature reserve guide did tell me that there had been sightings of lots of other birds during the day, but they must gone into hiding when I was there.  Even the gulls were in the centre of the reservoir and far away from the people.  I was glad I had remembered to take my binoculars with me.

I did see 2 Coots taking part in an exciting chase across the surface of the water.

View through the reeds of a Coot chase

 Is it a bouncing bomb?  

2 Coots enjoying a chase in the hot sunshine

I especially like Great Crested Grebes and was lucky enough to see one.  It was mainly swimming in the distance and, annoyingly, kept disappearing under the water.  I did manage to take this photograph when it briefly surfaced.

Great Crested Grebe seen through the reeds

Next time, I think I will go on a cooler weekday and hope that there will be more wildlife than people.