Willen Lake

Willen Lake is one of several built in Milton Keynes as 'balancing lakes' to take up excess water and prevent flooding. They are clearly very effective; some years ago when we had the 'Easter Floods' it was an impressive sight as it filled with excess water and channelled it into the nearby river at a controlled rate. However, most of the time it is a tranquil place with plenty of birdlife, and makes a good walk of around three and a half miles round the perimeter. At the moment there are hundreds of swans on the lake that have presumably migrated here for the winter, a large number of coots, grebes and cormorants and of course, lots of ducks. We also got a good close-up view of a heron; he just kept one eye on us as we walked past in case we had ideas of getting any closer.