Ribble Discovery Centre
It's been all systems go at the Ribble Discovery Centre since the beginning of September with the green light to clear the building in readiness for the re-furbishment.
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Ribble Discovery Centre is being completely refurbished, along with other facilities and activities at Fairhaven Lake, as part of an exciting Fylde Council project.
So, I have made numerous trips up and down the motorways relocating much of our existing stock to our other Lancashire store at the fantastic Leighton Moss reserve in Silverdale and also the other way taking education resources for storage at the wonderful Marshside.
Many of you will be relieved to learn that the interactive estuary board which has lived in the centre for many years has been collected by the other half of our team at from Marshside so watch out for its resurrection somewhere on the reserve and the albatross which had been "hanging" around has been be adopted by Julie at Fylde Council. We are all super excited about the re-developments and have all pulled together as one team across the Northwest to aid in the preparation for the centre's up and coming makeover.
This means we that the Discovery Centre will be closed until March 2021. School and youth group bookings are being taken for April 2021 onwards. In the meantime, all our great bird care and feeding products and gifts can be purchased from our other Lancashire store at the fabulous Leighton Moss or from our online shop.
The fencing to cordon off the buildings will be in place in the next few days. The pathway around the far side of the lake will still be in use but the pathway around the buildings will be closed off and the renovation works will be commencing very soon afterwards.
The sea wall and promenade at Lytham is till worth a visit though. The sounds of the oystercatcher and redshank are unanimous with the estuary and hundreds of shelduck have been seen dabbling on the mudflats at high tide. There is also always the chance of seeing passing migrants, such as wheatear on the saltmarsh and linnets are often seen and heard around the dunes. Flocks of waders toing and froing across the estuary are also a fabulous spectacle.
Marshside
Over on the other side of the estuary at Marshside the skeins of pink footed geese are ever increasing as is the number of over wintering ducks. Numbers of wigeon, teal, gadwall and shoveler are on the up daily. Many are still in eclipse or juvenile plumage, just to test you. Snipe were also evident close to Nel's hide earlier this week and there are good numbers of other waders too. Great white, cattle and little egret have all been observed recently and there has been 4 spoonbill in residence at Hesketh out Marsh.
Snoozing teal (Jo Taylor) Spoonbill (Stuart Darbyshire)
Sandgrounders hide has also had a make over. The old office at the back has been removed and the space has been opened up. The woodwork has had a lick of paint and it looks fabulous.
Sandgrounders hide (Wes Davies) and male shoveler (Jo Taylor)
There are social distancing measures clearly displayed in place in the hides, please adhere to these for your own and everyone else's safety.
Thank you for your support and we’ll see you at the Discovery Centre when our transformation is complete, we will keep updating as regularly as is possible and we look forward to seeing you all in spring 2021 with a shiny new shop and visitor centre.
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Jo