Lake at low water
|
Chew Valley Lake
|
When:
|
Daily
|
|
Where:
|
Chew Valley Lake
|
Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Mendip Hills, surrounded by unspoilt meadows and woods, Chew Valley Lake houses over 260 bird species with up to 4000 ducks on the lake in July and August. It offers a nature trail, trout fishing, an information centre and a Sailing Club.
Chew is the largest artificial lake in south-west England. Its surrounding reedbeds are also among the largest in the south-west. It is vitally important for migrating and wintering birds including wildfowl, waders, warblers and swallows. Wintering and passage wildfowl include important numbers of shoveler, gadwall, teal and tufted duck. Fish-eating birds such as goosander, great crested grebe and cormorant are also often seen, with the grebe numbers often the highest in Britain in autumn.
Breeding birds include great crested and little grebe, gadwall, tufted duck, shoveler and pochard. When the water level falls, the mud can attract waders such as dunlin, ringed plover and green sandpipers. Chew Valley Lake often attracts rare birds, including osprey, the scarcer grebes, and an American wader or duck appears most years.
|