THE WILD SIDE OF Whelford

Make exploring Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves your New Year’s resolution for 2020, says Sue Bradley

Whelford has long been a popular spot for visitors, from holiday makers staying in lakeside homes to locals seeking an hour in a tranquil place.

At one time the hamlet between Lechlade and Kempsford had a more industrial feel due to its years as a site for gravel extraction, but gradually the large holes left by the quarries filled with water and became important habitats for wildlife.

They include Whelford Pools, a great spot to see the natural world in all its glory throughout the year, but particularly over the colder months when it’s visited by a host of migrant birds.

Teal, gadwall, and shoveler are just some of the endangered wildfowl that choose to overwinter here. Others include the Cetti’s warbler and the bitten, both of which can usually be heard rather than seen, along with pochard, marsh tit, and mistle thrush.

Coots are year-round residents, assiduously patrolling their territories and nesting in the reeds and bankside trees in spring and early summer, as are little grebes, which also favour the vegetation around the water’s edge for their young.

Herons can often be seen fishing and the site is popular with cormorants and snipe, both of which roost on a bund lying between two lakes.

Whelford Pools has been cared for by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust for several years and now has even more to offer humans and birds alike thanks to a £25,000 improvement project funded by the Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund, the Charles Irving Charitable Trust and other foundations.