A trip to...Abberton Reservoir Visitor Centre in Essex
A little tour of Abberton Reservoir and the Visitor Centre, near Colchester in Essex.
They do bird watching, star gazing, great Hallowe'en nights and have a lovely wood burner and cafe.
If you forget your binoculars or telescope, you can buy some or they'll usually lend you some.
There's a great play area for the kids, too.
Best Attractions and Places to See in Colchester, England
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List of Best Things to do in Colchester
The Munnings Art Museum
Colchester Zoo
Mercury Theatre
Castle Park
High Woods Country Park
The Beth Chatto Gardens
Green Island Gardens
Abberton Reservoir Visitor Centre
Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum
Colchester Castle Museum
Abberton reservoir
A wetland site of international importance for wildfowl. Up to 40,000 ducks, swans and geese visit each year. Excellent bird watching opportunities and fabulous views over the reservoir.
The huge expanse of Essex & Suffolk Water's Abberton Reservoir is one of Europe's top wetland sites. It is of international importance as a safe haven for wild ducks, swans and other water birds, whether resident, passing through on migration or over-wintering. It lies close to east-coast migration routes and, with its surrounding envelope of pasture and tree plantations, is a welcome sight to tired birds.
Up to 40,000 ducks, swans and geese visit each year. The top seven species are Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Coot and Black-headed Gull and they cannot fail to impress. Added to this there can be hundreds of Shoveler, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Pintail and Great Crested Grebe. In the spring there is the unusual sight of Cormorants nesting in trees, one of the few places in Britain where they do this. They began in 1981 and have continued ever since.
Late summer brings the spectacle of large numbers of swans and ducks moulting - replacing their worn-out feathers - on the reservoir. Safety is vital while they do so because they replace all their flight feathers at once, which means that for a while they are unable to fly. In dry winters water levels fall temporarily to expose large expanses of mud. This attracts large numbers of passage waders such as ruff and spotted redshank from the coast. The surrounding farmland, too, is of value to birds. In winter thousands of golden plover may be seen there, along with small numbers of migratory geese and swans. For the keen birdwatcher the reservoir boasts an impressive list of rarities visiting briefly in winter or passing through on migration.
Essex & Suffolk Water’s reservoir enhancement project is well underway at Abberton Reservoir and making excellent progress. The concrete edge has been removed and a lot of re-profiling work has been done leaving shallow muddy margins and large areas of rough grassland.
Visitors can still enjoy walks on the new Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve. There are stunning panoramic views across the reservoir and surrounding villages from the higher ground. There are 2 hides overlooking the reservoir, and one in the new woodland. The Visitor Centre offers a great viewing area, toilet facilities, and a well-stocked shop, including binoculars and telescopes, wildlife books and DVDs, bird food and feeders, gifts, greetings cards, hot and cold drinks, packaged snacks and ice creams and for the children we have our new Middleditch Wild Play Area. Staff and volunteers are happy to explain the reservoir enhancement scheme to visitors, so do please call in and see us.
The Visitor Centre is 6 miles SW of Colchester on the B1026 (a minor road linking Colchester and Maldon) just S of Layer de la Haye - follow the brown and white Abberton Reservoir visitor centre signs.
Abberton reservoir
This video was uploaded from an Android phone.
A trip to...Westlands Country Park Colchester
A fun day out on a sunny, wintry day in Essex. Lots of safe, open space for the kids and dogs to roam. 3 play areas; one for the little ones and 2 for probably ages 6 and up. A zip-wire and an assault course. Parking around local streets is free and the park is free as well!
Motorbike ride round Abberton Reservoir, Essex, 1993
Digitised from a VHS video recording taken in August 1993 from a camera mounted on the back of a Triumph Daytona 1000 motorcycle. Route crosses Abberton Reservoir, twice, eastern crossing first. This section no longer exists and has been rerouted following extensive groundwork starting in 2010 to raise the water level of the reservoir by 3m. The reservoir is south of Colchester, Essex, UK. A notable feature is the generally good condition of the road surfaces, unlike the situation in 2013.
1-Day Cycle ride Essex. Maldon to Abberton Reservior & return. NCR 1
A solo one day ride from the lovely riverside at Maldon to the impressive Abberton reservior and back. The journey out mainly uses National Cycle Route 1.
Abberton reservior today is a major venue for birdwatching as the panoramic windows of the visitor centre / cafe show.
During WW2, the reservior was also the last location for the Dambusters to practice dropping the famous Bouncing Bombs.
As usual, I've used music I made many years ago on Ejay sampling software.
The Hanningfield Reservoir
Windy Day in Essex
Swans - On The Colne River in Colchester
Young cygnets with parents and other birds on the Colne river in 2011. The majority of my videos are music related, but I could'nt resist filming this natural scene while walking through the park in Colchester, on a rare sunny day. Perfect!
A trip to Ardleigh Reservoir
Stand Tall Auction
Stand Tall for Giraffes celebrated the 50th birthday of Colchester Zoo with a public art trail of 112 giraffe sculptures and at the same time raised vital funds for Colchester Zoo's charity Action for the Wild for global conservation.
The sculptures were designed by schools and professional artists and appeared in a trail in Colchester, Ipswich, Maldon, Chelmsford, Clacton and Braintree as well as by Tower Bridge at More London in the city.
Celebrity involvement included Sir David Attenborough, stars from Doctor Who, Michaela Strachan, Steve Leonard and BBC TV Deadly Art's Nicola Wood. Our grateful thanks goes to all Stand Tall's sponsors and the many thousands of people that got involved following the trail.
At the end of the trail the 2.5m giraffe sculptures were auctioned off along with two 1.3m giraffes which were signed by Doctor Who stars and David Attenborough. The auction raised £115,400!
Thank you to all our supporters, sponsors and artists for getting involved with this great project!
Keep Standing Tall!
Bird of prey caught in shop
bird of prey flew into our shop chasing a dove at mountfitchet castle, stansted essex, safely caught and released
Abberton Spoonbill 15 11 2009
Spoonbill at Abberton Reservoir on 15/11/2009. Extremely poorly digiscoped using a mobile phone, but it's behaving in such an awsomely Spoonbill-like fashion, I had to share it.
Essex - Tourist Information
For more Information, go to:
Essex Wildlife Trust Fish Passage
Part of a series of short clips filmed with the help of the Essex Wildlife Trust explaining different river features