World Wetlands Day 2025

 

'World Wetlands Day is a United Nations International Day of Importance that celebrates the value and benefits of wetlands.' 

On the 2nd of February 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in Ramsar, Iran and so this year marked its 53rd anniversary.

Wetlands, areas either always covered by water or for part of the year including flooded or waterlogged areas, are extremely diverse and valuable ecosystems that are sadly overlooked and undervalued.

They make up a mere 6% of our Earth's surface and have drastically declined since the 1970s at a rate three times faster than the loss of forests! 

Over the years our wetlands have been underappreciated and misunderstood, used and abused, drained and filled in to provide solid ground for humans to continue their 'development' takeover. 

Wetlands have many benefits but to me, the most important is that they are a home to many creatures big and small. That is surely enough to protect them?

World Wetlands Day is an important day of recognition with aims to raise awareness for the conservation and wise use of these magical places. World Wetlands Day is celebrated on the 2nd of February annually, however this year it fell on a Sunday and we don't go anywhere on weekends! Therefore we decided to celebrate a day late on Monday the 3rd. This year we visited RSPB Saltholme a former industrial land, transformed into a thriving nature reserve, focusing on restoring and conserving the local wildlife. It has many wetland areas and lots of birds! See the photos I took below.

Read more here about What are wetlands, and why are they so critical for life on Earth?
And visit the official World Wetlands Day websites here Official website of World Wetlands Day by Ramsar - 2 February - World Wetlands Day

Other posts of interest:
World Wetlands Day 2024
RSPB Saltholme

Saltholme is about a 1.5-hour round trip for us and we don't like to leave our old dog home alone too long so it was a bit of a shorter visit. It was still a lovely time, walking around a part of the reserve we didn't get to explore on our last visit and weather-wise it was a perfect Winters day! 

There was a huge Goose presence; Cananda Geese, Greylag Geese and the sound was pure joy!!
Other highlights of the day were a lovely little Robin who welcomed us as we arrived and a really cool encounter with a beautiful female Kestrel!

Hopefully, we get the opportunity to visit Saltholme again later this year.

RSPB Saltholme

 

These photos are from our first-ever visit to RSPB Salthome in Stockton-On-Tees. As members of the RSPB, we want to try and visit more of their reserves and Salthome is our nearest site at 40mins South of us. On the 29th of May, we packed up the car for a night away and for our first stop we spent a few hours at Saltholme. 

As I use a longer lens to photograph birds and only have one camera, the shots in this post that are worse quality were taken on my phone to capture those sights I couldn't on the DSLR. 

The photos may not be the best representation of this gorgeous reserve. Set against a backdrop of contrasting industrialism, on land that was once a part of that world, is a complete wildlife haven. 
This year is the celebration of 15 Years since RSPB Saltholme opened and you can read a great post from Teesside Environmental Trust about it here > RSPB Saltholme: 15 Years of Nature's Triumph.

I can't wait for our next visit and hope to be able to photograph it in a way that shows what a jewel of the North East this place really is. There was so much more we didn't get to experience and I think it'd be the perfect place to spend a whole day and with a picnic!