Hard Weather Feeding Program
The River Kent estuary looked more like a scene from the Arctic....
during the recent cold snap in January 2011 that so nearly brought about a Statutory Suspension of Shooting Wildfowl and Waders in England. During the six weeks of hard weather, the Westmorland Wildfowlers Association piled grain into one of the clubs main Sanctuary areas outside Peter Scotts old haunt ‘The Ship Inn’ at Sandside. Good numbers of wildfowl were attracted to this daily banquet including over 300 mallard with occasional pintail, wigeon, greylags, shelduck and mute swans. The supplementary feeding by the WWA undoubtedly helped many birds through this difficult cold spell when food was obviously scare. The sheer quantity of wildfowl attracted to this Sanctuary provided a spectacle for the local residents and visitors to the area, many of whom were asking who was responsible for feeding these birds. It was good to know the Westmorland Wildfowlers Association was doing its bit for conservation.
