About the reserve

This former sand and gravel quarry provides a haven for wildlife in the Trent Valley. The flooded gravel pits form an important wetland habitat attracting many rare birds in addition to a variety of more common species. The reserve is particularly important for its wetland habitats, from open water to reed bed. 

The Return of the Beavers

Beavers now call Willington Wetlands home, thanks to a beaver reintroduction that took place in September 2021 following years of planning. 

Beavers are a keystone species that can play a particularly crucial role as ecosytem engineers. As they go about their day to day life shaping the wetlands for their own benefit, they have a huge impact on the surrounding areas.  By digging canal systems and damming water courses, they create diverse wetland areas and homes for other animals such as otters, water voles and water shrews. If you would like to visit to try and spot the beavers, please follow our guidelines here. You can also read more about the project here.

Our Rewilding Hub and Vision

Willington Wetlands is one of our best rewilding hubs, offering a prime, dynamic wetland habitat managed through natural processes. By using keystone species like our beavers to create new wetland features and allowing our large herbivores to naturally graze the riparian meadows and successional scrub surrounding the water’s edge, we are truly showing the direction this site is going.

To closely monitor these changes in habitat and further understand the evolving biodiversity on-site, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust will continue producing ground surveys and will encourage the use of new technology, including drones, to gain a broader depth of understanding.

While we are letting natural processes take the lead - such as leaving the management of the islands entirely to the active beavers - key habitat works that still require human intervention will continue. This includes crucial infrastructure maintenance, invasive species management, and clearing vegetation that blocks views from our bird hide and viewing platforms.

Wildlife to Spot

The reed along the edges of the pools and in the old silt lagoon is home to a range of species and the grassland and duck marsh provide rich feeding for many species and breeding cover for others.

All year round the reserve is rich in bird life. In winter, large flocks of wildfowl gather, including wigeon, teal, pochard and shoveler.

In early spring, curlew gather on the wet grassland before they head north to their breeding grounds. During spring and autumn up to 20 species of wader pass through. Among the birds that breed at Willington are sand martins, lapwings and common tern.

Birds of prey also visit the reserve - these include peregrine, kestrel, hobby and sparrowhawk, as well as the very occasional marsh harrier. Bittern are regularly seen at the reserve and are now confirmed breeders.

In addition to birds, Willington's wetlands also attract several species of dragonfly and damselfly, and mammals including bats and otters. The conditions suit water plants such as short-leaved water starwort.

Click here to find out more about beavers and view our interactive map