Hi Ho slither away....

Well the hot days of summer have eventually fell upon us and with it the burst of insect activity that comes with hot summer days. Dragonflies are in abundance across the reserve and our largest native dragonfly the emperor dragonfly can often be found patrolling the pond outside the visitor centre. Elsewhere, black-tailed skimmers, broad-bodied chasers, banded demoiselles, red-eyed damselfly and many more odonata can be found. 

Black-tailed skimmer by Rich Berry

Four-spotted chaser by Colin Robson

This abundance of dragonflies has brought in one of its top predators, hobby’s, which can often be seen flying over the Slough or Mill Deep catching and eating their catch on the wing, an amazing sight to see.

The kingfishers have been quite active of late and are often seen down at the double-decker hide. Mind you, it pays to have a little patience and wait for a bit if you want to have a good chance of seeing this beautiful little bird. Several visitors got some cracking shots of this striking bird.

Ellie Stones managed this lovely shot.

Rich Berry caught this juvenile perched.

Stephen Whayman shared this action shot on Twitter

Sorry if you’ve sent us photos which haven’t been included here, but our telephone/internet situation at Lackford still hasn’t been resolved and therefore we have no access to our emails at present. The situation is completely out of our hands and we hope will be resolved soon, so watch this space.

Butterflies are another species that’s been taking advantage of the hot spell with many meadow brown, gatekeeper, ringlet, painted lady, red admiral, comma, large skipper’s and many more being seen around the reserve.

Ringlet by Rich Berry

Large Skipper by Colin Robson

Comma by Colin Robson

A pristine looking Red Admiral by Colin Robson

On the subject of Lepidoptera, last weekend saw the next instalment of our Wild for the Weekend themed weekends with Summer Wildlife. As usual, the moth traps had been set up overnight and the warm overnight temperatures meant there were to be some wonderful finds in the trap.

Plenty of Elephant Hawkmoths were in the trap

A male Drinker moth

We even had a visit from our largest resident moth the privet hawkmoth pictured below.

A Privet Hawkmoth

As usual, the moth sessions were well attended and the gasps of amazement were all around as beautiful moth after beautiful moth were lifted from the trap.

Monday opening!

As most of you will know, the visitor centre has always been closed on Monday’s (except for Bank Holidays). Well this i set to change for the period of the school summer holidays and as from Monday 27th July, the centre will be open on every Monday up till Monday the 31st August. So now you can enjoy coffee and cake after your walk every day of the week!

Yes, the Bioblitz soon approaches and our website is now live and can be viewed here. Please have a look and book onto any of the events you would like to attend. The events are free, but numbers are limited, so don’t miss out!

It’s not just wildlife.

Lackford is renowned for its biodiversity when it comes to wildlife, but as Ellie Stones proved, it’s also a place to get some stunning scenic shots, especially sunsets, and shared this lovely photo of the visitor centre on our Twitter.

Sunset in reflection of the visitor centre. Ellie Stones

And finally...

By now, all of us would have seen the weasel riding on the back of a flying woodpecker. However, David Offord managed to capture this series of fantastic photos from Bess’ hide of a damselfly hitching a lift on the head of a swimming grass snake!

Who would like to add a caption? 

A big thank you to David and all of our other contributors to the blog, keep your photos coming and don’t forget, Suffolk Wildlife Trust have a wonderful photo competition that’s free to enter and has some great prizes. You can find out more here.