Yes, spring is on its way and you only have to look around the reserve to see it. This week, after spending all of winter around the coasts, the Great Crested Grebe’s have returned to begin mating and have already been seen doing the courtship ritual out on Plover Lake, from Atlas Hide.
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| Great Crested Grebe tucks in to a tasty snack in the pouring rain. Photo by John Lord. |
The ducks have been in the mood for love with lots of mating going on and an opportunity for the #LackfordPhotoChallenge which was captured by Rich Berry.
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| Mallards mating #LacfordPhotoChallenge ©Rich Berry |
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| Just keeping her head above the water #LackfordPhotoChallenge ©Rich Berry |
Another contributor Adrian Sheppard, also caught some of our Canadian Geese getting feisty around the reserve.
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| Angry bird ©Adrian Sheppard |
As well as this perfect photobomb.
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©Adrian Sheppard
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Wonder what startled this Egyptian goose?
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| ©Rich Berry |
Away from birds, and a Queen Buff-talied Bumblebee was spotted flying through the car park on Sunday, a sign that spring is not far away. Something else that isn’t far away either is our next themed weekend on The Signs of Spring. Starting on the 14th March and running all through the weekend, there’ll be nature trails and questions for the family to answer as well as a spotter sheet to complete. How many signs of spring will you find around the reserve?
Plugging the gap!
As some of you may or may not know, the River Lark burst its banks last year causing some flooding on the reserve. Getting it fixed was never going to be easy as the authorities were already quite overstretched. However, with thanks to Glen Smithson of Lark Angling Preservation Society, his work and knowledge helped us plug the gap with some traditional Alder Faggots. These will help to stop the bank eroding away when the gap is infilled again.
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| Work begins to plug the gap. |
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| Getting stuck in. |
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| More piles being driven in to hold the Alder Faggots in place. |
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| All finished. |
Sightings
First up is the mammal camera. We’ve made some tiny modifications to the mammal camera which used to have a full wooden lid. This meant the chamber was always in darkness and therefore the cameras only recorded in infra-red (black & white). Well we’ve taken away half of the wooden lid and replaced it with a plexiglass lid which lets in more light and allows the camera to record in colour. This light coming into the box has not put the mammals off in anyway and within minutes of the lid being replaced, they were straight back in there. As you can see from the video, a Common Shrew and a Bank Vole can be seen munching away at the treats inside.
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Heron’s have started to gather in large numbers around the top end of the Slough and the Kingfisher’s have been chasing each other around too on the Slough and around the visitor centre pond. Ash Carr has been a popular place to see Siskin’s, Bullfinches, Tree Creepers and Nuthatches.
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| Nuthatch by Stuart Finley |
Other sightings this week include Marsh tit and Coal tit at the visitor centre feeders, Little Egrets flying around the reserve at several locations and Goldeneye displaying on the Sailing lake. The odd Goosander is still to be seen around the reserve, mainly at Bess’ hide. Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard’s have been spotted around Steggall’s, although beware, as the path down to this hide is quite muddy, so come prepared.
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| Marsh tit ©Rich Berry |
Iceland Gull after a short absence is back and roosting on the sailing lake of an evening as is a Glaucous Gull (juv) and 2 2nd cy (calendar year) Caspian gulls on the Slough, which also has a large gull roost now.
Tim Humpage got this picture of the Glaucous gull. Can you spot it? we will let you know the answer next week.
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| Spot the Glaucous gull. Answers next week. |
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