What will 2017 hold???

So before you know it, it's 2017. It felt like just last week we were getting ready for Spring so quick did 2016 go. But it was a good year with 138 species of bird being recorded at the site. Some of these hadn’t been seen at the reserve before or had been seen, but not for a long while, such as the bearded tits, which according to Paul Holness was last seen around 8 years ago. We had a good year when it came to osprey sightings with several views of them flying over during the August period as the birds begin their journey south.

We had great success with our kingfishers too with at least four broods being raised at Lackford. One brood in particular were very special as they nested in the bank outside the visitor centre, something that has never happened before.

One of our volunteers spotted a great white egret, another first for the reserve even though it didn't stop long. Well done to Joe Myers for spotting that. Also, wheatear and avocet were seen on the reserve again last year among many others. We would like to thank all our eagle eyed visitors for reporting their sightings back to the staff at the centre. Please keep it up as you are our eyes and ears out there.

So, what to look out for this year? Well as always, anything is possible and a rarity can drop in at anytime, but unless people are out looking, we will never know. Last year saw an increase of marsh harrier sightings at Lackford compared to other years and one rarity that we did get other than the long-tailed duck was the great northern diver, which only stopped on the sailing lake for 90 mins, but still it was enough.

A special year

Yes, 2017 is looking to be a special year because it's our 30th birthday! Lackford Lakes officially became a reserve back in 1987 when Bernard Tickner bought a part of the area that had been excavated by RMC (now known as Cemex). This part is now known as The Slough and sees many waders there through the seasons. Eventually, RMC stopped excavating in 2000 and gave the rest of the pits to the Trust. Since then Lackford has gone from strength to strength obtaining not one, but two SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) designations for its overwintering wildfowl and the other for its 21 species of dragonflies and damselflies that can be found here during the warmer months.

A Google Earth image of Lackford Lakes (no lakes present then) in 1945.

And how it is today, a haven for wildlife.

Regular surveys on the site are uncovering new things all the time and it is thanks to the diligence and hard work of our volunteers and staff that make Lackford what it is today, a prime nature reserve. 

Otters

As some of you may or may not know, we have been doing otter surveys at Lackford over the past year and we thought we would like to share with some trail cam footage taken of two otters found using the site.

As you can see from the first clip, the camera was the focus of their investigations. Check out the second clip to see if they were successful in pulling the camera down.

Sightings

As usual, Paul’s New Years Day bird walk was well attended despite the poor weather and 56 species of birds were spotted. Since then, in one week, that number has risen to 73 species. This is down to visitors reporting their sightings back at the visitor centre. By reporting your sightings, no matter how common you think they are, you help many other visitors to the reserve. So keep those reports coming in.

Male goldeneye at Winter hide © Ian Goodall

This past week the kingfisher has been very obliging at the visitor centre pool, the Doubke-decker and Paul’s hide. Goldeneye have been seen regularly at the Winter hide, Hawkers pool and Bess’ hide. Teal and wigeon have been reported in large numbers of over 400 each on the Slough and Long Reach. Plenty reports of goldcrest, treecreeper, nuthatch, marsh tit, coal tit and other small birds from Ash Carr. 

Male pochard © Ian Goodall

Shelduck, little egret, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck and pochard are all being seen on the Slough and there’s the odd sighting of snipe doing in from Steggall’s hide too. Out on the field feeders on Church walk, brambling have been spotted as well as bullfinch and reed bunting. This is also a likely place to spot tree sparrows, so keep your eyes peeled.

Snipe seen at Steggall’s © Colin Robson

Goosander are still coming into roost and can usually be seen on the Slough, although this weekend a drake was spotted on Hawkers pool and Long Reach.

Goosander (male on right) © Ian Goodall

One last note to mention is that we are getting starlings coming into roost either outside the centre, or in the reeds at the Double-decker hide. However, numbers are low and not like those seen in previous years. Yet it is still a sight to behold and the best time to see this is around 3:30pm just before dusk.

 

Bags of Help!

Well things are really looking good here at Lackford Lakes. The artworks up around the Slough have now been completed and many of the visitors are liking the new improvements. The area around Reed hide has been opened up and re-profiled and is now called the shallows. This should bring the waders in closer to the hides and has already enticed in a pair of snipe and some oystercatchers.

Another TV

Yes, those kind people at Hughes have kindly donated us another TV for the centre at Lackford. The first TV donated to us by Hughes relays all the activity from our wildlife cameras straight into the centre. But the new TV will show your wonderful wildlife images in the centre. At the moment, the TV is currently showing some drone footage of Lackford taken by our volunteer and facilitator in getting the new TV, John Lord. It’s also showing some wonderful images of our winter ducks taken by regular contributor Ian Goodall.

New TV from Hughes.

We want to keep the images seasonal and with spring just around the corner, we want to see your images of those spring arrivals, courtship activity, etc. All we ask is that the image be a high quality jpg 1080 x 1920 and has to be taken at Lackford. Please email your photos to us at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org We can’t promise to use everyones photos, but we will do our best.

Another camera

Yes, more good news, Handykam has kindly donated us another camera to be used at Lackford. This is a welcome addition to the current three cameras we have as we get even more views of what is happening around the centre. We were planning to use the camera in an owl/kestrel box mounted on the centre, but we found out that there is some work that will need to be carried out soon on that part of the building and a nesting bird would scupper those plans. But fear not, Visitor Officer Hawk Honey put on his thinking cap and has come up with ‘Pond Cam’!

Now, visitors to the centre, can see what is happening below the calm surface of the pond outside on the TV inside the visitor centre. 

And in this clip, we see a mallard drake feeding quietly before the female comes in and stirs it all up and shows him how it’s done.

A more unusual and less seen creature from the one above can be seen swimming past on our Facebook page.

Bags of Help!

From this Saturday, Tesco shoppers will be able to cast their vote for Lackford Lakes and help decide whether we receive £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000 towards improving the site.

The supermarket has teamed up with conservation group Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help campaign in hundreds of regions across England and Wales.

The scheme will see three community groups and projects in each of Tesco’s 390 regions awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the five pence charge levied on single-use carrier bags.

The public will vote in store from 27 February until 6 March on who should receive which amount.

At Lackford the Bags of Help initiative will allow us to resurface a section of the Kingfisher Trail to improve access for pushchairs and wheelchairs. 

But if shoppers vote for us to receive £10,000 or £12,000 the Trust will be able to resurface more of the path, replace a wooden bridge on the Kingfisher Trail and purchase a new mobility scooter.

You can vote for Lackford by shopping at Tesco at St Saviours Interchange, Bury St Edmunds IP32 7JS

For more information click here

Recent works at The Slough.

The recent earthworks at The Slough have now been completed and everyone is liking the end result. As you can see, The Slough has been re-profiled in an attempt to bring the waders and other wildlife much closer to the hides. This new area is now known as The Shallows.

The Shallows from the Double-decker hide.

This new area along with a few other changes means we’ve now got a new map, which can be seen in the visitor centre alongside the new TV and sightings board.

March events.

The year is zipping along and already we find ourselves in March, where does the time go? We’ve got lots of events lined up for this month and something for everyone and they can all be found here or from the listing on the right if you’re on a desktop computer. But don’t leave it too long as these events begin to book up early, so don’t miss out. 

Lots of fun at Naturally Art

Paul’s Monthly Guided Bird Walk Wed 9th

Easter opening!

Yes, Easter is almost upon us, but that doesn’t stop us here at Lackford because we are open ALL WEEKEND including Bank Holiday Friday and Monday. So if you’re stuck for something to do, do pop down and see us.

Sightings.

Our bird species list continues to grow here at Lackford and we’re now up to 87 species for the year! Latest on the list is a peregrine that was spotted from Steggall’s hide flying over. Our newest arrival this week saw not 1, not 2, but 3 red-crested pochard, two males and a female. A pair of these successfully raised some chicks here last year and we wonder if any of these are those chicks? One of the males has gone down to Wilson’s Flood and the other pair are sitting at Mill Deep. 

Red-crested pochard by Ben Moyes

4, yes 4 kingfishers were observed fighting at the weekend at Hawker Pool by the false kingfisher bank. The following day there were 3 with 2 males trying woo a female. Has spring sprung????

Great-crested grebes have been doing their bonding dance on Long Reach and this was seen and captured by one of our wildlife guides Jim Palfrey.

Great-crested grebes do their dance of love!

Bittern hasn’t been seen in the last week, but this does not mean it isn’t there as bitterns are an expert when it comes to camouflage. However, regular visitor Stuart Finley managed to photograph this bittern as it flew past Reed hide.

Bittern in flight

Tree sparrows have been heard from the field feeders and plenty of bullfinch, siskin, redpoll, goldcrest and marsh tits have been spotted around the reserve, especially Winter hide and Ash Carr.

Buzzard’s and marsh harrier’s have been regularly sighted these last few weeks drifting lazily over the reserve and snipe, oystercatcher and goosander’s can still be seen on The Slough and the long-tailed duck is still here and often seen on Hawker Pool or Long Reach among other places. See the staff to find out her latest location before you go off hunting for her.

The otters  have been sighted occasionally around Hawker Pool and we are still getting our several thousand gulls roosting on the Sailing lake overnight with the odd rarity amongst them such as Iceland gull.

Don’t forget to pop into the centre when you arrive to check out where all the latest sightings are before you walk round.

Happy New Year!

Well a big happy New Year to everyone and we hope the holiday period went well for all of you and your families. The New Year here at Lackford got off to a wonderful start with the centre being open on New Years day, and the turn out to Paul's New Year's Day Bird Walk saw many people in attendance. this helped get our Year's Bird list off to a fine start with 62 species of bird being spotted on the first day. You may remember, we ended 2015 with 136 species of bird seen at Lackford and already on the first day, we're almost halfway there. 

The bird list at the end of New Year's Day. We know it say's 60, two were not reported till later, which
were Common Gull and Magpie.

Currently, the list now stands at 75 with a new bird for Lackford being added last week. Over the last weekend, there were several reports of a great northern diver on a lake not too far from Lackford. However, on Tuesday it disappeared, only to turn up on our Sailing Lake. Big thanks to our resident birder Paul Holness for spotting it. Regular visitor to the lakes and photo contributor to the blog Ian Goodall, managed to get these cracking shots. Thanks Ian.

Great Northern Diver on the Sailing lake by Ian Goodall

 It only stayed for a short while before flying off in an easterly direction. We hoped that it would land on the east lakes and join our Long-tailed duck, who is still showing well on Hawker pool and Long Reach, but alas, it wasn't so.

A little bit of work

Many of the visitors to Lackford may have noticed we've been having a bit of work done on The Slough. Thanks to an anonymous donation, we are re-profiling The Slough in an effort to bring the wildlife closer to the hides. The work will involve making some new spits of land closer in, creating a shallows and removing some small amount of reed-bed.

The view from Reed hide

As you can imagine, the wildlife that usually frequents The Slough has decided to move to the East Lakes part of the reserve with many of the teal, gadwall, shoveller and others being found on Mill Deep and can be seen from Fullers Mill hide.

The major work started just before Xmas and should be completed towards the end of the month. There will also be some revamping and moving of the hides and we will keep you posted as to what and when this is happening.

The new shallows being created.

Yet, come the evening when the work has stopped, the goosanders still come in to roost on The Slough and whilst some of these photos were being taken, a kingfisher flew by. So it hasn't put off the wildlife that much and not before long, everything will be back to normal and hopefully even better than before.

Wildlife rescue

Just before Xmas, our resident birder Paul Holness found an injured male kestrel on the reserve. Despite there being no obvious injuries, the bird could not fly and so we contacted Phoenix Bird of Prey Rescue who came and collected the bird. Their vet found no injuries either and it was most likely suffering some bruising. A couple of weeks of rest saw the bird return to full health and then returned to Lackford for release back to where it was found.

Paul with the kestrel shortly before release. Thanks to Jo Daffin.

A new booking system

We have a new online booking system in place for all events and activities at Lackford. All events are now bookable through the Trust's What's On page, or by clicking on the link to the right of this page in our 'Forthcoming events' section. For those of you who do not have internet access, you can book up by calling our head office on 01473 890089. We can no longer accept bookings at Lackford as we previously did, sorry.

It's not just photos!

Lackford is often frequented by photographers getting snapshots of our wildlife. But this week Richard Thewlis posted some of his lovely paintings of the Lackford wildlife on his Twitter account (@RThewlis) and has agreed to share them here, thank you Richard. I think you will agree, they are lovely paintings.

Teal by Richard Thewlis

Lapwing by Richard Thewlis

According to Richard, these were "Mad rush paint sketches". It would take me an age to paint something like this and still wouldn't be anywhere near as good as these paintings.

Sightings

Well, as previously stated, the long-tailed duck is still present on the reserve and can usually be found on either Hawker Pool or Long Reach, it's always best to pop in to the visitor centre to find out it's latest location on the day.

Siskin and redpoll have been seen altogether in large flocks around the visitor centre. Bullfinches have also been seen in their glorious winter colours around the visitor centre and the car park. Grey wagtail has been spotted on several occasions on the overflow car park and in Ash Carr near Hawker Pool. Goldcrests have also been a common sight at several places around the reserve, but especially in Ash Carr. Here you can also find some siskin flocks, marsh tit, nuthatch and treecreeper.

On the lakes, we have plenty of goldeneye, tufted duck, teal, pochard and wigeon in attendance. Little grebe can often be seen from Fullers Mill hide and little egret from Bess'. Kingfisher has also been showing well at Bess', Atlas and Steggall's as well as at the visitor centre. Here a jay has become a regular visitor to the feeder cam.

Great spotted woodpecker can also be seen visiting the nut feeder at the centre too. The gull roost on the sailing lake is still quite a sight to see, with over 10,000 birds coming in to roost every night. For those who like a challenge, there are still the odd rarity to be found amongst them such as yellow-legged gull. What else will be found and can be added to our ever increasing list?

Don't forget, no matter how insignificant you think your sighting is, please let the vitiator team know, you may add a bird to our species list that hasn't been recorded yet!

Seasons greetings!

Well christmas is almost upon us and soon the visitor centre will be closing for the Xmas period. Below is our opening times over the festive season

Sat 19th - Open
Sun 20th - Open closing at 4pm
Mon 21st - Visitor centre closed
Tue 22nd - Visitor centre closed
Wed 23rd - Visitor centre closed
Thu 24th - Visitor centre closed
Fri 25th - Visitor centre closed
Sat 26th - Visitor centre closed
Sun 27th - Visitor centre closed
Mon 28th - Visitor centre closed
Tue 29th - Open 10am
Wed 30th - Open
Thu 31st - Open
Fri 1st Jan - Open
Sat 2nd Jan - Open
Sun 3rd Jan - Open

These time are for the visitor centre only, the reserve will be open during the usual times (the toilets are only open when the centre is open) and what better way to get away from the busy festive activities. You can find plenty of peace and quiet here at Lackford and spend time looking for some of the winter wildlife that's around at the moment.

There is a Christmas activity morning for 4-10 year olds on the 22nd December - 10.30am-12.30pm. The perfect opportunity to drop the kids off for some festive crafts and trails while you pop out and do some last minute christmas shopping! Spaces are still available, but booking is essential though so call us to book on 01284 728706.

Don't forget to check the right side of this blog to see our other activities.

Jay's can be seen around the reserve stocking up on winter food by stashing it away in a secret hidy-hole somewhere, a bit like squirrels. 

Jay getting food from our feeder cam.

Elsewhere, kingfishers are still to be seen fishing at the various lakes on the reserve. Of late, we've had a male kingfisher who has taken very well to the visitor centre pond by spending up to a couple of hours at a time catching small fish.

Kingfisher by Ian Goodall

The feeders at the visitor centre have been very busy too with lots of great, blue, coal and marsh tit's visiting the feeders. Look out across the pond and you may also see the odd reed bunting amongst the reeds.

Reed bunting by Ian Goodall

Don't forget to check out the various hides around the reserve and look out for some winter specials such as goldeneye and goosander.

Male goldeneye by Ian Goodall

A beautiful male goosander by Ian Goodall

Works on the reserve

This week and going on till February next year, there will be some major work going on at The Slough. This will involve some machinery and the wildlife around this lake and Jason's pool, may move off to other lakes around the reserve. The work will improve the Slough making it even better for wildlife and visitors too and bringing the two closer together we hope. Over the festive period the work will cease, but will be resumed in the new year. So whilst the work is ongoing, it would be best if you concentrated your viewings to the East Lakes trail (Fuller's Mill, Bess', Atlas and Steggall's hides) and avoid the Double-Decker, Reed and Bill's hides altogether. 

The New Year

As always, the centre will be open on New Year's day and what better way to start the new year with a guided walk with our bird expert Paul Holness. There will be 2 x 2hr walks, the first starting at 10:30am then at 1:30pm. The cost is £3 and there's no need to book, places will go to a first come, first served basis.

Then on the 2nd Jan, we have our first themed weekend of the year Bedtime at Lackford. Starting at 1pm, we will have wildlife guides placed around the reserve reporting and showing people where to see the various birds coming into the reserve to spend the night. You can go out with the guides or stay in the centre to see the reports coming in and being posted to our sightings board. There should be 1,000's of gulls arriving along with goosanders. Reed buntings will be seen diving into the reeds and if we're really lucky, we may get to see a few starlings too!

Gull's coming into roost on the sailing lake.

Sightings

We have now officially moved into winter and now we can look forward to a few months of watching winter ducks and the winter roosts we have at Lackford.

Starting with the ducks, winter is when these look best.  We have thousands using the reserve from the smallest the teal to the ones we only see in the winter, the goldeneye and goosander.  Other ducks to look for include tufted duck, pochard, wigeon, shoveler and gadwall.  The unusual duck - the long-tailed duck is still here and is now approaching its six week.  It is often on hawker pool

Winter is also a time when the feeders at the centre are the busiest.  Lots of blue tits and great tits can be seen.  The coal tit and marsh tit make quick appearances from time to time.  The great spotted woodpecker and jay are also making regular appearances.  We are just beginning to see a few others like chaffinch and blackbirds using the feeding area - they should become more common as the winter progresses and it gets colder as it should be.

Still at the centre - the kingfisher seems to pop in daily at the moment for a bit of lunch.  We have also been watch quite a few siskin and the occasional redpoll on the trees around the visitor centre.

Winter thrushes are just starting to make appearances with redwing and fieldfare be seen in recent days.

The main attraction, comes at the end of the day so worth staying to the end - the gulls.  Thousands are now settling on the sailing lake in the last few hours of daylight.  It is a sight just to see and if you were to look carefully through them you might find a more unusual gull like a caspian gull or yellow-legged gull that were at the roost the other day.

Other birds seen going to roost include reed bunting in the reeds, little egrets flying past, cormorants and goosanders.

Teal on the reserve.

Thank you and merry christmas

All the staff at Lackford would like to thank all our volunteers, visitors and members. We wish you all a very merry christmas and hope you all have a wonderfully pleasant new year. We look forward to seeing you in 2016!

The darling bugs of May.

Wow, where does the time go? It only seemed not too long ago the reserve was getting a dusting of snow, now leaves are on the trees, flowers are in bloom and people are beginning to venture out in t-shirts. This was especially the case over the bank holiday weekend at Lackford, where we had the latest in our themed Wild for the Weekend event called May Bugs!

The weather, all except for Sunday, held out for us and the bug hunting and pond dipping sessions were well attended by eager adventurers wanting to explore unknown worlds. Saturday and Monday saw Visitor Assistant Hawk out on the reserve encouraging children to get involved in bug hunts. Armed with sweep nets and bug pots, the children got down to finding the creatures that inhabit the long grass and hedgerows near the double-decker hide. A variety of bugs were caught for Hawk and volunteers Joe and Ollie for them to identify, the majority of which were spiders. The air was alive with orange-tip butterflies, which had many children eager to capture one, in hot pursuit but often without success.

Lets get bug hunting!

One regular captive of the bug pot was ladybirds, with 7, 22 and 24 spot ladybirds being caught and recorded. The were plenty of small beetles being caught too including this beautiful green tiger beetle.

Green tiger beetle.

The green tiger beetle is one of those insects that has some fascinating facts about it. These are fast running insects that are indicative of heathland as they love bare sandy soil which they scuttle over to catch their prey, which is mainly other insects.

They can run so fast that they have to stop frequently to allow their eyesight to catch up with them! Their large bug like eyes, allow them to see for long distances making them very hard to catch as they can see you approach from a distance.

The Monday saw a welcome return to the lakes, damselflies! Yes, there seemed to be a small emergence event down by Atlas hide of blue-tailed and large red damselflies. They could just be seen as their fine gossamer wings flitted in the sunlight just above the grass. Lackford has a Site of Special Scientific Interest designation for its 17 species of dragonflies, so these two species are just a taster of what is to come.

The pond dipping event on Sunday saw Visitor Officer Mike and volunteer Joe outside, but under cover exploring the depths of one of our ponds. Lots of interesting things were found from horsehair worms, diving beetle larvae, shrimps and dragonfly larvae. Despite the weather, everyone who came said they really enjoyed and were amazed at the diversity of life often unseen in such a small pond.

Sightings

The lovely weather over the weekend saw many people seeking out the wildlife at Lackford, so the sightings were many. Hobby’s seemed to be the highlight for many with 5 or 6 being spotted at a time towards the rear of the sailing lake.The nightingale is still in full song in the scrub near the education meadow and lesser whitethroat, garden and willow warbler’s are being heard from around the car park. Redshank is still being seen at the Slough and buzzard’s can often seen circling from all over the reserve. 

Lesser whitethroat © Ian Goodall

Buzzard © Ian Goodall

Also to be seen in numerous places are blackcap, reed and sedge warbler’s, marsh tit’s and treecreepers. Swifts, swallows, house and sand martin’s continue to be seen and the common sandpiper can occasionally be spotted down at Steggall’s.

A rather busy sightings board.

Butterflies have been busy too with many orange-tips and peacock butterflies around. Brimstone’s and comma can be seen near the double-decker hide and small copper’s are to be found along the path between the centre and Tickner’s hide. Keep your eyes peeled ahead of you along this path and you may even spot a green tiger beetle. 

Binoculars

Some of the wildlife above can be seen quite easily around the reserve, however, some of it we all need a helping hand to see. Not all of us are lucky enough to own a pair of binoculars, or sometimes through plain forgetfulness, we leave them at home only to realise this when you park the car in the car park. If this sounds familiar, fear not. Pop into the centre and see a member of staff and you can hire some binoculars so your visit isn’t a wasted journey. 

We also stock a range of fine binoculars from Viking. These binoculars are excellent for wildlife spotting and are of a good quality that is built to last. 

A fine range of optics

So whether you fancy making the step to buying your first pair of binoculars, or fancy upgrading your old faithfuls, pop in and try our new range at Lackford. All of our staff will be able to give you expert advice and help you find the ideal binoculars for you.

Possibly the best Nuthatch in Suffolk!

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.

Female Nuthatch © Barry Woodhouse

Male Nuthatch © Barry Woodhouse

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.

Great tit with peanut © Barry Woodhouse

Blue tit © Barry Woodhouse

"Look Ma, no wings!" Coal tit © Barry Woodhouse

Dunnock © Stuart Finley

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).

Grey squirrel taking advantage of the stump © Barry Woodhouse

New arrivals

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.

Egyptian Goose and gosling © Rich Berry

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.

Egyptian goose and young © Stuart Finley

© 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.

Canada goose gently tends her eggs © Alan Reynolds

Alan also managed to grab this cracking photo of a buzzard flying over the reserve.

Buzzard © Alan reynolds

 Another Twitter user @TopkitKev managed to get this shot of a Treecreeper this week.

Treecreeper © @TopkitKev

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. 

Redwing © Barry Woodhouse

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.

© Matt Horsham