Just as
we say goodbye to the swallows, willow warblers and whitethroats that have
spent their summer at Lackford, we eagerly watch the skies for the arrival of
the birds who call the reserve their winter home. Some species are seen
exclusively on the reserve during the colder months, whilst the numbers of
others are boosted during the winter by extra individuals arriving from the
continent, so that familiar birds become easier to see.
The earliest migrants on site this autumn
were a flock of siskins, which can be seen feeding on the cones of alder trees around the
Centre, usually quite high up. These tiny blue-tit sized finches have a
penchant for Lackford and it is about the best site in Suffolk for them- in a
'good' year a group of 50-100 birds are a common daily sight, though they make quite
a discreet call that makes them a little harder to find than noisier flocks such as goldfinches or starlings. As well as alder cones, they enjoy nyger seed and
peanuts- when the weather turns very cold towards the end of winter they can
sometimes be found on the bird feeders. This is a natural response to wild food supplies beginning to run low that mean many winter birds are easier to see as winter progresses. Male siskins are a beautiful canary-yellow, and the females a more subtle greenish colour, but both sexes have a streaky pale
belly and a noticeably forked tail. For every 14 siskin that spend their winter
in the UK, one redpoll does too. At Lackford it is worth searching among the
siskin flocks for these- they are a shade bigger, and are a creamy white with
dark streaks all over, a red forehead patch in both sexes and a red breast too if you are looking at a male bird.
Also in the trees and already present on the reserve are the redwings- thrushes that are so named for the rusty-red patches under the wings most obviously seen in flight. They migrate to the UK (often overnight) from Scandinavia and Iceland and are often seen in a mixed flock with blackbirds, song thrushes and the larger fieldfares, devouring berries in a hedgerow. Red fruits such as hawthorn berries are their favourite, and are eaten first, and ivy berries seem the least palatable as they often hang around on the bushes until the spring, eaten only when all others have gone. This year, redwings were first spotted at Lackford in early October and they are likely to hang around until March or April. Fieldfares have been spotted on site over the past weeks- these are big, confident, darker-coloured thrushes that arrive a month or so later than the redwings but in roughly the same numbers. It is thought that because these are bigger than redwings, they can tolerate the harsher conditions in northern Europe for longer before choosing to migrate south. Look out for both species on the berry bushes around the Kingfisher trail or underneath fruiting trees such as crab apples, eating the fermenting windfall.
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| Female redpoll (lacking a red breast) credit: Mike Andrews |
Male siskin feeding on alder cone seeds
Credit: Jim Palfrey
Also in the trees and already present on the reserve are the redwings- thrushes that are so named for the rusty-red patches under the wings most obviously seen in flight. They migrate to the UK (often overnight) from Scandinavia and Iceland and are often seen in a mixed flock with blackbirds, song thrushes and the larger fieldfares, devouring berries in a hedgerow. Red fruits such as hawthorn berries are their favourite, and are eaten first, and ivy berries seem the least palatable as they often hang around on the bushes until the spring, eaten only when all others have gone. This year, redwings were first spotted at Lackford in early October and they are likely to hang around until March or April. Fieldfares have been spotted on site over the past weeks- these are big, confident, darker-coloured thrushes that arrive a month or so later than the redwings but in roughly the same numbers. It is thought that because these are bigger than redwings, they can tolerate the harsher conditions in northern Europe for longer before choosing to migrate south. Look out for both species on the berry bushes around the Kingfisher trail or underneath fruiting trees such as crab apples, eating the fermenting windfall.
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| Redwing (with the rusty-red patch under the wing just visible) |
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| Fieldfare eating its way through a hawthorn bush credit: Bryan Tillott |
Moving out of the trees and onto the Lakes themselves, the duck dynamic has changed too- October 31st saw the first goldeneye arrive. As I write this we have just a couple of birds on site (numbers should build up over the next couple of months), and perennially good spots to see them include the Sailing Lake and Long Reach (in front of Bess's Hide). Both sexes look similar to tufted ducks, of which we have hundreds, but the male goldeneye has a circular white patch in front of his golden eye and the female has an orange tip to her short stubby bill. They are very active diving ducks and in late winter put on an impressive courtship display- several males may be seen in pursuit of a female, each throwing their heads back whilst making a 'nhair-nhairr' call that is best described as sounding like a clock being wound up. Although a few pairs breed in northern Scotland (<200 pairs), the birds at Lackford are mostly likely to have come from NE Europe or Scandinavia.
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| A goldeneye pair (male below, female above) on a choppy Sailing Lake! |
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| A sleepy mixture of teal and gadwall in their winter finery on The Slough credit: Mike Andrews |
Recent work by the reserve team has helped make the Slough more attractive for these waterbirds- the vegetation has had its annual cut, and the bridge leading to Bernards' hide has been replaced- the new bridge is set higher up the bank which allows the water level on the Slough to be raised without the path flooding as a side effect. These wetter conditions and the extra mud exposed by the vegetation cut provide ideal feeding grounds for waterfowl, and it has also been popular with snipe. These can be seen in small groups amongst the ducks and on 31st October 14 birds were spotted from Double Decker hide. Outside of the breeding season, snipe are much easier to see not just because they are naturally bolder and more prone to feeding out in the open, but also because UK numbers swell from roughly 75,000 to 1 million birds. So most of the individuals you can see at Lackford will not be local birds but will have come from Iceland, Scandinavia or Northern Europe.
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| Snipe in reed-stem camouflage mode! credit: Mike Andrews |
Birds such as tits and goldcrests become easier to see now the trees are beginning to lose their leaves, but this is not the only reason why they are more conspicuous- numbers are boosted by birds from the continent. As the weather turns colder these birds naturally form mixed feeding parties consisting of blue, great, coal, marsh and long-tailed tits, with goldcrests (Europe's smallest bird), siskin, treecreepers and sometimes nuthatches all tagging along too. It's thought they do this because the more pairs of eyes there are in the group, the easier it is to find a food source when the weather is harsh- eating enough each day despite the shorter day length can be very difficult. More pairs of eyes in a flock also no doubt make it easier to spot predators such as sparrowhawks who find hunting more straightforward when the trees are bare. As you walk around the trails at Lackford (Ash Carr is always a hotspot) these mixed groups are quite obvious- they tend to be quite noisy and if you take some time to stand still as the group passes by you they will often come quite close- their preoccupation with food means they don't always pay much attention to people!
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| A winter view outside Paul's Hide credit: Mike Andrews |
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| Sunset over the Sailing Lake credit: Hawk Honey |
by Heidi Jones (Lackford Lakes volunteer)
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