Lackford Lakes is a twice designated SSSI Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve situated in West Suffolk just north of Bury St Edmunds. It has 11 lakes with 9 hides and spans over 360 acres of ex-gravel extraction works. The reserve has a visitor centre that is open Tuesday - Sunday and Bank Holidays.
It's been all over Twitter, has also been seen on Facebook and has even made an innocuous tree stump a local celebrity. Yes, the Lackford Stump, as it has become to be known, is the frequent stage for our resident Nuthatch's feeding antics. Many photos have been posted right across social media of this beautiful bird coming down for a treat. Regular visitor and photo contributor Barry Woodhouse shared some of his photos of it recently.
Of course, the Nuthatch isn't the only bird taking advantage of the Lackford Stump. Regular visitors to the stump also include Marsh, Coal, Great, Blue, Long-tailed tits and Dunnock. The stump is right next to the path, so if you decide to visit the stump to take photos, please be aware, the path and those who walk on it come first.
It wasn't going to be long before other creatures took advantage of the stump either. Regular visitor and photographer Barry Woodhouse also shared these pictures to Twitter using our @SWTLackfordLake handle and #lackfordlakes hashtag (thanks Barry).
There have been some new arrivals this week on the reserve, but they didn't fly in, they broke in. Egyptian geese hatched their young this week down at Steggall's.
Thanks to Rich Berry for sharing this lovely photo on our Twitter page. Another visitor who got some great shots and posted them to our Facebook page was Stuart Finley.
Another new arrival was a bit of a surprise for the Visitor centre staff. Although we know we have Tawny owl's on site, we didn't expect one to come to the feeder cam in the wee hours. Although the food there wouldn't be to its liking, the owl was obviously using the post, which stands 7ft high, as an observation post to look for rodents. This was the first visit on the 24th March where we got to see a close up of his feet and talons.
The next visit was a few days later where it swooped on to one of the poles that hold the feeders. This time we got to see more of its head and its ability to turn its head right round.
Plans are afoot to make a small adjustment to the camera which will allow us to move it back a bit from the post and allowing us to see the owl in full, for it seems that he is a regular visitor and our visitors have enjoyed watching the video in the centre.
Moving away from birds, we’ve had the moth trap out this week and despite the very changeable weather of late, we managed to trap around 6 moths of three different species.
From left-right: Hebrew Character, Clouded Drab and Small Quaker
Some of the early moths can be a bit on the dull side, but stay with us and things will soon change. An exciting find on the reserve this week in two separate places were newts! Yes, year old Smooth newts that had spent most of the winter hidden away were found.
Smooth newt found by the reserves team.
Back to bird and Canada geese, we have a few, have a nest and Alan Reynolds grabbed this shot to share on Twitter.
Remember, if you want to share with us your photos that you’ve taken at Lackford, please email them to us at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org with your name. Just put ‘For the blog’ in the subject field, thanks.
A big sorry if you sent us a photo that hasn’t been included here, we get quite a few photos sent to us now and we don’t have space for them all. But let that not deter you from sending in photos, we want to see them and we’re working on something new, so watch this space!
Events at Lackford!
We have the Naturally Art workshop for 5-10 year olds on Sat 4th 10-12pm. Pre-booking is essential and you can do this by phoning the reserve on 01284 728706.
We also have the Egg Quest Family morning on the 9th from 10:30 - 12:30. Spaces are disappearing fast, yet if we have enough bookings, we may hold an extra event in the afternoon from 2:30 - 4:30pm. Again, pre-booking is an absolute must, due to the popularity of this event!
Sightings
Well, the species count still continues to climb here at Lackford, with the number now standing at 105 species this year so far. The three new species this week were a Common Scoter on Long Reach, from Bess’ Hide. Don’t all go rushing down there now, it didn’t stop long and was soon on its way again. We did have some photos of the bird sent in, but due to a small technical issue, we can’t show it right now. However, we will post it in next weeks blog.
The 104th bird that helped the count rise were a pair of Curlew which were spotted from Bill’s hide at the start of the week and have been spotted on several occasions since. The 105th bird was spotted by our resident bird expert Paul Holness who, whilst leading a walk around the reserve on a wet Sunday morning, managed to spot a Jack Snipe, which was with two common Snipe and was seen again from Bill’s. Buzzards have been seen on several occasions and some displaying Goshawk’s too. Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Tits, Treecreepers, Redwing and Green Woodpecker have all been spotted down at Ash Carr.
We still have some Goldeneye on the sailing lake and Red Crested Pochard can still be seen from Fullers Mill hide. Great Crested Grebes are still displaying at Atlas hide and there are still some Lapwing about at Steggall’s. Redshank are still being seen from Bill’s hide as well.
Chiffchaff can be heard from nearly everywhere on the reserve and Cettis warblers are heard calling from the path around the sailing lake.
On the insect front, large queen Bumblebees have been spotted feeding from the catkins on the reserve this week and Suffolk’s County Hymenoptera (Bees, wasps and ants) Recorder, Adrian Knowles, found a small Two-coloured Mason Bee. This little bee actually builds its nest in empty snail shells and camouflages it by making a wigwam of grass over the shell. Adrian went on to tell me that these are usually found on the wing in early April, but he’s never found one this early before!
We have yet to have a confirmed sighting of a Blackcap yet, but it is due any day soon. Colin Jakes, our resident bird ringer believes that once the wind changes to a nice South Easterly, the birds will come flocking in.
Last, but not least, we thought we would leave you with this beautiful photo sent in to us by Matt Horsham.
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