The Bioblitz got underway with a bird walk led by our bird expert Paul Holness with over 50 species of bird being spotted in the 2 hour walk. Dr Simone Bullion then led the setting of the mammal traps, which was attended by several families interested as to what we might find scurrying around in the undergrowth.
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| Dr Simone Bullion demonstrates small mammal trapping. |
As the sun set, the moth traps were set ready to catch the nights moths and then we moved on to the other night's flying creatures, bats. Lots of people turned up for the bat walk, which was led by Bill Landell from Suffolk Bat Group and Visitor Assistant Hawk Honey. The evening was ideal and it wasn't long before the first bats of the evening were out feeding much to the delight of those in attendance who all had bat detectors leant out by the visitor centre and the bat group. The evening was filled with the sounds of clicks from the detectors and "ooo's" from the spectators as the bats wheeled and dived around them.
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| A glorious moonrise whilst watching bats |
Everyone returned form the bat walk to get wonderful views of the night sky with the help of the Breckland Astronomical Society
The Sunday morning had a glorious start with sunny warm skies, which looked, and proved promising for the day ahead. First off, we had to find out what the moth traps had caught. There was quite a variety of moths in the trap, including a couple of hawkmoths and some beautifully coloured ruby tiger and August thorns.
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| Hawk Honey shows visitors Terry and Peter some of the moths caught. |
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| Black arches |
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| Hawk with a pine hawkmoth |
Colin Jakes, our resident bird ringer held a drop in session showing and explaining to people why birds are rung and Martin Sansford from the Suffolk Naturalist's Society and Suffolk Biological Records Centre led a Breckland's plant walk, identifying and recording all the plants they came across.
At 9:30am, it was time to empty the small mammal traps and once again Dr Simone Bullion was on hand to lead the proceedings. The traps were pretty successful overnight catching several
bank voles and the odd
wood mouse. Unfortunately, no shrews were caught, which would have added to our records.
Education officer Emma Keeble and spider expert Alan Thornhill led the minibeast and spider walk, which was eagerly attended by several children as was the always popular pond dipping which turned up many dragonfly and damselfly larvae.
The reserves team of Will Cranstoun, Giles Cawston and Joe Bell-Tye led the afternoon wildlife walk across the reserve pointing out many of the reserves special features and wildlife. This moved on to a Dragon & Damsels walk led by Suffolk County recorder for Odonata (dragonflies) Adrian Parr. This saw those on the walk going to parts of the reserve that is usually closed off to the public.
Finally, the day was brought to a close by bee expert Adrian Knowles and butterfly expert Rob Parker leading the bees and butterfly walk.
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| Rob & Adrian explore the shrubs looking for butterflies & bees. |
During all of these events, Suffolk Biological Recording Centre were on hand to record all of the findings over the 24 hour period. The one thing we did not expect to find, but were happy we did, is that we broke the Suffolk Bioblitz record by recording the most amount of species in 24 hours! Yes, 657 species were recorded, but that number is set to change as some recorders need to add their findings and some other records also need to be verified or discounted. Amazingly, over a 1000 records were submitted over the 24 hour period and for this we would like to say thank you to everyone involved who help make this Bioblitz Suffolk's best ever. This includes all the volunteers who helped on the day, the experts from SNS and SBRC and the staff, not only from Lackford, but head office too. Last but not least, a big thank you to everyone who attended and enjoyed themselves looking for wildlife at Lackford. If you would like to see what was recorded, then click
here
In other news...
The juvenile kingfishers continue to show well across the reserve, hotspots continue to be Bess', Atlas and double-decker hides and Hawker pool. Another visitor that is becoming more and more frequent and has been seen nearly every day in the past week or so is the otter. Several photos have been sent in to us and shared via our Twitter and Facebook accounts.
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| © Allan King |
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| © Barry Woodhouse |
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| © Duncan Fletcher-Brown |
As said before, the kingfishers are showing well too and again the photos have been coming thick and fast.
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| Juvenile female kingfisher © Barry Woodhouse |
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| © Barry Woodhouse |
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| Juvenile male © Allan King |
Little grebe's are also being spotted around Fullers Mill hide with their young and a snipe was reported from the Slough at the weekend.
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| Little grebe © Barry Woodhouse |
The
great spotted woodpeckers are still being seen at the feeders outside the visitor centre.
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| Great spotted woodpecker © Barry Woodhouse |
Of course, Lackford isn't just about birds. A great variety of other wildlife has also been spotted around the reserve as seen and photographed by our many visitors and contributors to this blog, which we thank you all for.
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| Brown argus © Rich Berry |
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| And with wings shut © Jim Palfrey |
Dragonflies have also been in abundance as the weather is perfect for them to hunt and mate in.
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| Southern Hawker © Jim Palfrey |
Duncan Fletcher-Brown got three for the price of one in this shot of the butterflies nectaring on
hemp agrimony on the kingfisher trail.
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