It’s been a busy week on the reserve, especially for our volunteers who have been working hard in the chilly outdoors. Many of our followers may have noticed a post on our Facebook page recently, relating to the felling of some White Poplar trees.
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| Giles tackles one of the White poplars. |
Some commented that it was a sad thing to see and that we shouldn’t cut down trees at all. So we thought we’d take this opportunity to explain the reasons why we have to do this.
How the trees got here
The trees were originally planted by farmers when the site was farmland. They planted the trees to create a windbreak to protect crops and to stop top soil being blown from their fields.
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| Aerial view of Lackford Lakes in 1945. Nothing but farmland © Google Earth |
Why did they have to go?
The trees are considered to be of Low Conservation Value, which basically means that they do not support a wide variety of wildlife. The shade that they also created was impacting the fen area, where we once had over 1000 orchids. Last year in 2014 the orchid count was less than 20. So by felling these trees, we’re creating sunny open wet fen habitat, which is not only good for the early marsh orchids, but a variety of other plants too, including water mint, mouse ear, etc.
The new wetland area will be more structurally diverse with wet boggy areas and piles of deadwood (habitat piles), wet grassland, standing and fallen deadwood. All this increases the biodiversity of an area, which means more invertebrates move in, which then encourages the birds to move in too.
What will happen to the felled trees?
All the wood from the trees will be used to create these valuable habitat piles, which are so important to insects. In nature today, a lot of dead wood is used for timber or firewood, which makes it hard for invertebrates who feed on this resource. By creating these habitat piles, the insects can be left to eat away in peace until a birdie finds it for a tasty snack.
Of the 100 Poplars on site, we have only felled 40 trees which were of poorer stock. So all is not lost and the work that has been carried out by the reserves team will only further improve the quality of Lackford’s biodiversity making it a richer habitat for all wildlife and those who watch it.
Other work on the reserve
Our volunteers have also been busy coppicing on the reserve this week.
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| Willow coppicing begins |
Their work encourages the willow and hazel to have new growth and the whips that are collected go towards creating fencing around the reserve and at other sites.
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| The stumps will regrow more whips in the coming years. |
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| The harvested whips which will be used to create natural fencing. |
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| Jacket potato’s are a welcome feast on a chilly day. |
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| The hard working volunteers, well done! |
Whilst busy coppicing, one eagle eyed volunteer (Daisy May Bodewes) spotted and took a photo of this beautiful fungus she found, Scarlet Elf Cup (which has many different names apparently).
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| Scarlet Elf Cup photographed by volunteer Daisy May Bodewes |
More fungus
Another volunteer who also spotted some wonderful fungi whilst working at Lackford is Joe Myers. Joe was part of our new ‘Guide in the Hide’ team during our themed weekend on Winter Ducks which was attended by many and enjoyed by all!
Thanks Joe for sharing these wonderful images.
Thanks Joe for sharing these wonderful images.
Sightings
We’ve had quite a few sightings this week with a bit of a rarity being spotted and possibly a first winter record for a Breckland site. The sighting was that of an Iceland Gull, which was spotted in the gull roost on the sailing lake at about 3pm on Saturday.
Other sightings include quite a few raptors across the reserve, Kestrel, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a Merlin was seen on Saturday flying across the driveway. A Red Kite was also seen and was first spotted by our ‘Guide in the Hide’ at the Slough. He radioed it through to our Visitor Centre where staff there were able to see it and point it out to visitors as it drifted in gliding circles, carried by the wind, over the car park.
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| Red Kite © Judith Wakelam |
Starlings still continue to murmurate over the car park from about 5pm but numbers vary from a few hundred to around 3000, which was the case on Sunday.
Bullfinches, Siskins, Tree Creeper, Wren and Goldcrests are being seen on regular occasions along Ash Carr, but once again, check in the centre first as the Bullfinches have also been spotted by the Sailing Lake path, Orchid Hide and Church Walk.
The Kingfisher has also been spotted on many occasions around the reserve from a fighting pair on the Slough, speeding across Plover lake, near the hide at Steggall’s and a female seen several times at the visitor centre and Bernard’s Hide. We did have a visitor who caught the Kingfisher on camera with a frog in its beak. He was going to email it to us, but as of yet, we’ve yet to receive the email. When we do get it, we’ll share it with you right here. In the meantime, if you have a photo you’d like to share with us, please email it to hawk.honey@suffolkwildlifetrust.org with your name and we’ll be glad to add it to our blog.
Also spotted at the visitor centre this weekend, although only briefly, was a Grey Wagtail.
On the mammal camera in the middle of the night, we've had Field voles, Wood mouse and a new visitor is a Shrew.
Another unusual sighting and one worthy of our #LackfordPhotoChallenge hashtag is a photo by one of our regular visitors Rich Berry. He snapped this Goldeneye eating a rather unusual meal, a Signal Crayfish
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| A tasty snack © Rich Berry |
On the radio
BBC Radio Suffolk will be interviewing our staff member and Visitor Assistant, Hawk Honey tomorrow (Tuesday 17th Feb) around 8:40am. He'll be chatting about our new wildlife cameras and other stuff, so be sure to listen and spread the word.
That's it for now, keep those photos coming in and do pop into the visitor centre and say hi.
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