I had never heard of this place before Shorts listed it for the 2017 UK challenge, but as I have relatives living less than an hour from here, I decided to have a look. I have only been to Arundel WWT, so don't have much to compare it to and have to confess that I am no expert when it comes to Wildfowl, but I enjoyed the visit nevertheless! The Wildfowl reserve is set in pleasant countryside with tree lined paths. The main path follows the perimeter with 20 or so low fenced paddocks of varying sizes, most of them were wide rather than deep which I prefer as it gives better viewing. There are then a couple of paths across the centre of the reserve, one of which passes 4 higher fenced paddocks containing 3 species of crane & one for Cape Barren Geese. Further along this path are enclosures for white Stork & Giant Wood Rail. Near this is one of the highlights for me, a very natural well planted enclosure with large ponds and an island which held around 10 Chilean Flamingo. I would say it is probably one of the best flamingo exhibits that I've seen. My feelings may have been influenced by the contrast with the bare yard and small pool I'd seen at Birdworld the day before though! There were a lot of unsigned enclosures and several with only some of the species labelled. Overall, I enjoyed the hour and a half or so I spent there and if you like Wildfowl and are nearby, give it a try. I think I preferred it to WWT Arundel. For anyone interested there is also a miniature railway and small motor museum, which I had a quick look at. Species list to follow
Chilean Flamingo Manchurian Crane Grey Crowned Crane Common Crane White Stork Giant Wood Rail Guinea Fowl Swans Corscoroba Bewicks Black Black-necked Whooper Geese Red-breasted European White-fronted Spur-winged Orinocco Magpie Cape Barren Barnacle Hawaiian Maned Swan Ducks Red billed whistling Indian Spotbill Carolina Bahama Pintail Marbled Teal Canvasback Cuban or black billed whistling European Shelduck Northern Pintail European Eider Gadwall European Wigeon European Pochard Tufted Red billed Pintail Cape Teal Ferruginous White-eyed Ringed Teal Common Shoveler New Zealand Scaup Fulvous whistling White-winged South Georgia Pintail Eyton's whistling Hooded Merganser Chiloe Wigeon Redhead Comb Runner Duck ( no label) Rosybill Australian Shelduck Smew There were probably at least another 30 duck species and several geese unlabelled
I am glad you liked it Pipaluk, when I visited it in the early 90s it was really quite poor. Having an unkempt look about the place. I was surprised it managed to keep going, and it has kept going for many years now, as it is a place you never hear much about at all. I think, at the time of my visit, it was still owned by the family that started it, but they were elderly, so perhaps it has been given a new lease of life under someone else now ?
I guess some might still say it was a bit unkempt in parts and most of the signage was old & faded (where there were signs that is!). But I would prefer to say it had character!
I've got a feeling it's owned by the local council. It's possibly my nearest collection - about 10 minutes away (I have the joy of Bentley one way, Drusillas the other....). I must confess to not having visited for 10 years or more - last time I went, I did find it rather shabby, and somewhat stuck in a timewarp. There are efforts to make the place more profitable - there's a Go Ape style rope walk, and in the past few years I've seen an open-air version of Romeo and Juliet in the grounds (pretty good!), but even in the local area Bentley as a whole (there's a car museum there, and other stuff too, I think) has zero profile.
currently NO listings on zootierliste for current or former holdings so thank you for the species listings hope someone else goes soon so we can have a full on show species list. Did you take on photographs of the species without signage so as we can help identify the species.
You are correct. While searching for something else, I came across this document from East Sussex council with a reference to a 1978 gift. I guess it's just a FOI request to the East Sussex council and we'll have a list of species. https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk...040302/Agenda/STE2Mar2004Item5bAppendices.pdf
Thanks to all on this thread (so far), for filling out my/our knowledge of this largely unknown but paradoxically long-lasting collection. My curiosity remains and If I'm ever in the area (which is not that likely in the near-future) I'll definitely make an effort to look it up.
Turns out that there is more to the story, taken from here. The house at Bentley was bought by Gerald and Mary Askew in 1937 and following the Second World War the couple developed the house and garden and started a wildfowl collection. Two large Palladian rooms were added to each end of the original house. Following the death of Gerald Askew in 1970, Mary gave the nucleus of the estate to the people of East Sussex. Mary continued to live in part of the house and the site was developed as a tourist attraction. In 2004 due to increasing running costs the East Sussex Council offered to sell the property back to the Askew family for £1.25 million or it would sell the property on the open market. Fortunately the Askews purchased the estate and placed it in the hands of a trust in order to ensure it remains open to the public for the foreseeable future. The quiet, peaceful gardens are quite secretively located behind the house and include well-laid ponds and statues of sphinxes. Songbirds and moorhens live in the gardens. In 1962 influenced by the Sussex artist Philip Rickman and a visit to the Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge the Askew's started a collection of wildfowl. A pond was dug in a nearby field which was poor agricultural land and the collection was started. The collection now has examples of 125 of the 147 species of wildfowl. In 1982 a Motor Museum was opened on the site. It is a collection of vehicles mostly owned by private individuals and are on loan to the museum.
The entire content of that page was, however, taken from Wikipedia - a not particularly well-sourced Wikipedia page at that - and as such should be taken with a pinch of salt. Certainly I doubt that the following statement is accurate: Quite apart from anything else, there are more than 22 species of wildfowl entirely absent from public collections within Europe - and several more which are so recognisable that I doubt pipaluk could have missed them in his list of species he knew the ID of.
Looking at the history on the Wikipedia page, the "125 of the 147 species of wildfowl" dates from 2008. Looking around a bit further, Bentley's own website currently says "We have around 1000 birds and 130 species from around the world" (Bentley Country Park), which could be taken in several ways because they could be including subspecies in the total as many places are wont to do, and they are likely including their non-waterfowl species as well. But a 2011 blog from their place says "At our last count we had 138 species of wildfowl here; there are 155 species in the world." (Autumn at Bentley Wildfowl Reserve). Someone could try simply emailing them and asking for a list.
I have e-mailed them but after looking at the google map I have realised I could visit the collection in September while I'm close by Birding.
Was thinking about re-visiting yesterday on the way home from seeing relatives, but was disappointed to find that Bentley Wildfowl closed and the entire collection dispersed in the autumn of 2018! Glad I went in 2017 now.
Pity it has now closed though I never visited. I seem to remember one waterfowl species was bred at Bentley before anywhere else in the UK, but can't remember what it was.
I was visiting Slimbridge and Peter Scott mentioned a species that had first been bred somewhere else rather than Slimbridge - 'in Sussex' I think he said and I said 'Bentley', but can't remember the species..
