Kids in London – Wetland Centre, Barnes

A report by my nine year old daughter

There are good signs from road to the entrance. Parking was easy.

We started in The Observatory - where you go bird watching. It’s a medium sized room where you can look out quite far across land (that you are not allowed to walk on) and you can see – depending on the season – different birds and ducks. Today we saw Australian Swans (which are black) and some small birds with pink beaks that are hoppy and bouncy and that make a cute soft squeaking sound. There are new telescopes – there is a handle where you can move it around to look in different directions. There are also some touch screens where you can see shadows of things and if you click on the shadow it tells you what bird it is and there is more information about it.

Spitbergen (the name of one of the areas) has a calming and relaxing walk with ducks resting and sleeping on the grass in a huddle. There is a pond walk. Then you come to the sign saying either go to the Wildlife Walk or the Iceland way. Iceland wasn’t very icy – but it was a nice long walk round to the next area.

In the Northern Forests there is a lodge that tells you what it was like in the olden days. There are boxes which showed you old fishing gear and there is also a touch screen where you had to guess seven items that belonged to the Wetlands. It is by the lake.

South West Asian Reed Swamp was basically lots of reeds and like a really long walk along boards which are above the water. Ducks can swim underneath but you can’t see them. Then we came to the African area and the signs show what sorts of birds you might see and there is more grass and land. There are more ducks resting – but this time separately and not in the huddle. And there were more hoppy birds here.

Then he came to the Headley Hide which is a small wooden hut with signs about the birds you might see. You have to be quiet and bring your own binoculars. There are open windows here and we saw a few geese flying. And there are really high stools for little children and low stools for adults. Then we came to South America area – there are diving ducks going hysterical, I think they were fighting. One went diving and it set the others off. There was one lonely swan and a family of one type of the hoppy birds.

Then we came to Neighbourhood Watch which is a big area but quiet. There were little bridges to walk over towards to the next thing. And then we came back to the centre where there are toilets – which were a bit messy but OK. They can get a bit busy.

The Discovery Centre was the best bit. You went through a long tunnel (though you could skip parts if you wanted to). I think it was about the sea telling you facts about fish and sea creatures. When you came to some stairs when you got to the top and went through there were lots of activities for children. Like a game with water where you see if you can make animals come back. And put the ball into a monster mouth – it is quite hard because of the suction and you have to aim it and push it. The other activities gave you information about things like water and you answered questions on touch screens by answering a, b or c and if you got it right it said “Yes”.

We had lunch in the cafeteria. It was very tidy. There were tables inside and out. Outside there is a very nice pond view. It had good food – we took a packed lunch but my nanny had something with rice which she said was tasty. The gift shop had various things to buy – like plants, garden things, chocolates and toys for children.

:thumbsup: