Summer is still with us.. but for how much longer 

With the warm weather still apon us there is no let up on the dragonflies and insects on the wing. With this late summer warmth its introduced a noticeable increase of migrant hawker dragonflies along with ruddy & common darter and brown hawker.

painted lady © Greg Veness

 A willow emerald damselfly is new for the year near Bess’s hide.
The first grayling of the year was seen last weekend and a purple hairstreak has been reported recently. Along with good numbers of brown argus, common blue, peacock, red admiral, comma and painted lady butterflies, the reserve total is now at 25 species for the year.

Plently of Birds on the reserve  

The birds on the reserve are stable with common sandpiper & green sandpiper and common terns as our main visitors along with our first ever black-tailed godwit this was spotted out on the Slough

black-tailed godwit © Joe Jackson 

Eyes to the sky

Recently an osprey has been spotted over Lackford and is now being seen more often, please keep a look out for this beautiful bird as it migrates south. Also we have had a wheatear spotted on site.

osprey © Greg Veness

The kingfishers are still putting on a beautiful show at (slough & eastern lakes) so why not pop down and see these beautiful birds. Kingfishers are a small and unmistakable bright blue and orange bird, that fly rapidly, low over the water and hunt fish from riverside perches. They will occasionally hover above the water's surface before diving for their food.

kingfisher © Larysa Flack 

kingfisher © Larysa Flack 

Time for a clear up

This week some of our volunteers were out and about checking our nest boxes after this years broods and came across a tree sparrow nest. We beleive that this maybe the first time they are nested at Lackford and we very much hope that we will return next year.

Smaller than house sparrow, they have a chestnut brown head and white cheeks and collar with a black cheek spot.

tree sparrow © Lackford volunteers  

tree sparrow nest © Lackford volunteers

Whats on at Lackford

This Saturday 3rd September we have our family bat walk, we will leave the visitor centre at 8pm and return at 10pm. Please bring a torch with you but bat dectors will be used.

On Saturday 10th September we have our Naturally Art event. From 10 am to 12pm Art activities will be undertaken with the inspiration of the wild

Dont forget to check out our website for all our events: Lackford Lakes We look forward to seeing you soon.

grey heron © Larysa Flack 

Feeling hot hot hot...

Summer is here

Well the sun is out and lets hope its here to stay. Over the last week the temperature has been rising and providing us with more opportunities to see amazing insects on the wing.

With the increase of temperature we are currently at 11 species of dragonfly and 17 species of butterfly.

brown argus © Jim Palfrey

Butterflies and dragonflies continue to impress our visitors at the reserve. Various brown butterflies and skippers are present in good numbers along with favourites such as ringlet, speckled wood and green veined white. Not new to the list but making a reappearance is red-eyed damselfly and the larger hawker dragonflies. With the clear blue skies ans warm weather why not pop along to the reserve.

brown hawker © Ian Goodall 

emperor © Ian Goodall

Kingfishers on the wing

Our kingfishers are doing well with another brood due to fledge in the next few weeks while birds from the first family are being seen regularly. The Double Decker hide and Hawker Pool sites are still the best with regular sightings at the visitor centre pool as well.

kingfisher © Ian Goodall

kingfisher © Ian Goodall

 Are waders going to call Lackford Lakes home?

 Over the last few weeks wading birds have been seen more and move over on The Slough. green sandpipers and a common sandpiper are regulars along with the occasional little ringed plover putting in a brief appearance. Please let us know if you spot any other birds to the centre.

common sandpiper © Joe Jackson 

 Summer holiday fun for all the family.

The summer holidays have started so why not visit Lackford Lakes and get reconnected with nature. There is plently happening from organised events to daily activities (details can be found on our website) Lackford Lakes, or click on one of the links found on the right of this page to find out about the many activities we have on offer.

We have organised events throughout August, please book online  www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org - full details are on the website but here is a slice of what we have to offer.

• Family Fridays - every Friday 2 - 4pm 
• Wednesday Family mornings - 3rd & 17th August
• Activity mornings for 4-7 year olds Tuesday 9th & Tuesday 23rd August @ 10.30am - 12.30pm
• Activity days for 8-12 year olds Thursday 11th & Thursday 18th August @10.30am - 2.30pm

Dont forget we have our daily activities in the summer, where you can get a spotter sheet and go looking for insects and wildlife. Or why not borrow one of our bug hunting kits and see what you can find.

Special Events not to be missed. 

Beautiful butterflies weekend. Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th August - During this weekend there will be wildlife guides present to help you spot those butterflies.

On Sunday 7th August there will also be a special butterfly themed wildlife wander, where visitors can join a guide to go looking for these butterflies.

Changes on the way.

 In the coming months we will be making improvements to the Kingfisher trail to improve your experience at the reserve. Currently we are also working on two spots - building a bigger hide overlooking the Slough where the old reed hide used to be. This will become Bernard's hide and will offer you closer views across the Slough to look for those waders. We are also building a platform not far from the centre that will overlook Bernard's pool. Allowing you the perfect location to watch dragonflies and butterflies.









 

Summer months.. where are you? 

After the deluges of last week, (rain rain go away come again another day) on Friday it brightened up and the wildlife took centre stage.

With the weather brightening up and the warmth bulding, there has been the emergence of fresh looking butterflies; in addition to last week’s browns, ringlet and speckled wood have joined the roll call. Peacock butterflies are splendid at the moment and all three skippers have been reported (large, small and Essex

peacock butterfly © Greg Veness

 What a site

A broad-bordered bee hawkmoth feeding on viper’s bugloss was one photographer’s highlight, and a nice record.

broad-bordered bee hawkmoth © Bob Chappell

Despite the wet weather the insects have been making lackford lakes their home. Numbers of dragonflies such as hairy and - new this week – emperor dragonflies are increasing. Brown butterflies such as gatekeeper and meadow brown are in evidence for the first time along with small copper and skipper. A notable event is the nesting of tree bumblebees in the Double Decker hide – please take care if using this hide

 

Flashes of blue

In the bird world the kingfishers have fledged, adults and juveniles can be spotted all around lackford. (good spot is the Double Decker hide) Look out for that flash of bright blue across the water, they are such a stunning bird to watch and with the sunny weather on the way the sun makes them even more beautiful.

kingfisher © Stephen Whayman

kingfisher © Stephen Whayman

 

 The sound of summer

The turtle dove is a dainty dove, its smaller and dark than a collared dove and slightly larger than a black bird. The upperparts are mottled with chesnut and black and its black tail has a white edge. The purr of a turtle dove is the sound of summer and its amazing that one was spotted on the wire along our church walk path.

turtle dove © Rich Berry

Turtle dove © Jonny Rankin

 Family fun

A day trip to lackford lakes is perfect for the family to connect with nature, pop into the visitor centre where you can pick up one of our spotter sheets (see how many species you can spot)

On saturday 9th July we have, Summer birds & butterfly ID.    

Explore lackford lakes with local birder and butterfly enthusiast, Paul Holness, and learn to observe and identify the great variety of species.

A chance to spend a relaxed and informative day learning new identification skills or brushing up on those you already have.  The wide variety of habitats at Lackford encourages a great range of bird and butterfly species and you will have the opportunity to see and hear a good number of both. This day is suitable for beginners and those with less experience. Booking is essential for this event so please visit our website for more details. http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/lackfordlakes

It was Naturally Art this weekend with our nature inspired art weekend for 5-10 year olds. This week there was an under the sea feel to it and was enjoyed as always by all who attended. If you would like your child to get involved, then book them onto our next session on the 10th Sept

The best in Suffolk

As may know, last weekend was Bioblitz weekend at Lackford Lakes and what a wonderful weekend it was with people coming from far and wide to be part of it. One family traveled all the way up from Dorset just for the Bioblitz and said they enjoyed every moment of it.

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.

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.

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.

Hawk Honey shows visitors Terry and Peter some of the moths caught.

Black arches

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.

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.

© Allan King 

© Barry Woodhouse

© Duncan Fletcher-Brown

As said before, the kingfishers are showing well too and again the photos have been coming thick and fast.

 Juvenile female kingfisher © Barry Woodhouse

© Barry Woodhouse

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.

Little grebe © Barry Woodhouse

The great spotted woodpeckers are still being seen at the feeders outside the visitor centre.

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.

Brown argus © Rich Berry

And with wings shut © Jim Palfrey

Dragonflies have also been in abundance as the weather is perfect for them to hunt and mate in.

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.

Painted lady, meadow brown & peacock © Duncan Fletcher-Brown

Volunteer wildlife guide Joe Myers happened on this 22 spot ladybird and got a photo of it just before take off.

Lift off! © Joe Myers

And this ladybird lookalike, but not a ladybird, was this fungus beetle.

Fungus beetle 

A slightly unusual find was made by visitor assistant Hawk Honey when he came across this robber-fly with common blue damselfly prey along the summer trail.

Nom, nom, nom.

Last but not least, we had some amazing footage of an unexpected visitor to the mammal box this week.

A busy summer ahead!

Well all the schools have now broken up for the summer period and this means that the visitor centre at Lackford will now be open 7 days a week! Yes, now you can visit the visitor centre everyday during the school holidays between 10am - 5pm and enjoy cake and a hot drink as well as browsing the shop for bird food, ID guides or binoculars.

This weekend also sees the start of our Bioblitz Countdown. With only a week away from our first ever Bioblitz at Lackford, we can’t wait to see what you will find. Last year, another one of the Trust’s education centres, Foxburrow Farm, held a successful Bioblitz and some amazing records were made. Children were finding things that had never been recorded on the site before including 4 rare species of bee and wasp. Lackford has a diverse range of varying habitats in it 360 acres, so it’ll be likely that something unusual will turn up, will it be you that finds it???

Saturday 1 August from 4pm

4pm - Bird walk with local expert Paul Holness. No need to book 
6pm - Setting up mammal and pitfall traps. No need to book.
7pm - Family wildlife walk with the Lackford warden. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
8.30pm - Star gazing with the Breckland Astronomical Society. No need to book
8pm - Moth trap set up. No need to book
9pm - Bat walk with Bill Landall and Hawk Honey. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
10pm - Nighttime amphibian session. Please book - online or call 01284 728706

Sunday 2 August 

6am - Early morning wildlife walk. Please book - online or call 01284 728706

6am - Empty the moth trap. No need to book
7am - Bird ringing session. No need to book
7am - A look at Breckland plants. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
9.30am - Emptying the small mammal traps. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
10am - Checking the pitfall traps for mini beasts and spiders. No need to book
11.30am - Family pond dipping session. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
12am - Wildlife walk with a focus on reptiles. Please book - online or call 01284 728706
1pm - Dragon and damselfly session. No need to book
2pm - Bees and butterfly session. No need to book
Solar viewing throughout the day with the Breckland Astronomical Society. No need to book

As you can see, there really is something for everyone. Suffolk Biological Records Centre will be on hand to record all of the findings and experts will also be available throughout the day to help identify your finds. You may also notice that Breckland Astronomical Society will be present during the 24 hour period showing people the wonder of the night skies and solar viewing through special filters that allow people to look at the sun without injury. 

Places are beginning to fill up quickly on the bookable activities, so be sure not to miss out and book your spot for a great day. You can book your place here and then click on the relevant activity.

Remember, all the activities are FREE, so don’t miss out on this great opportunity.

With all these exciting things happening, news soon gets around. A new visitor to the Lackford area must’ve heard about what is happening at Lackford lakes and decided to check us out.

A peacock checks out the visitor centre at Lackford.

Can this be added to our 131 species of bird on the reserve this year, we think not. Peacock’s have yet to become a naturalised bird here in the UK and therefore stays off the list.

Sightings

This time of year usually sees the bird life getting a bit quiet and Lackford is no exception. The kingfisher is still showing off and on and can be seen in various places, but mainly from Bess’, Atlas and the double-decker hides. Stephen Whayman caught these fantastic images and shared them to our Twitter page.

Another elusive visitor to Lackford, yet often sought, is the turtle dove. Rich Berry managed to get a couple of shots though as the birds were seen in one of their usual places on the wires above the drive into the car park.

Turtle dove tightrope walking © Rich Berry

Having a stretch © Rich Berry

Some great spotted woodpeckers have been seen at the visitor centre feeding station. Hopefully, we will be able to get it on one of the cameras soon, when it gets over its shyness.

Great Spotted Woodpecker pays a visit to the feeding station.

Insects are one of the things that are not being so elusive on the reserve at the moment, with butterflies, bees and dragonflies being spotted all over the reserve. Duncan Fletcher-Brown and wildlife guide Jim Palfrey have been out getting some stunning shots of these.

© Duncan Fletcher-Brown

© Duncan Fletcher-Brown

© Duncan Fletcher-Brown

© Duncan Fletcher-Brown

© Jim Palfrey

So as you can see, this week and this summer sees lots happening at Lackford including lots of events after our Bioblitz with our summer activities.

Summer activities at Lackford

Don’t Forget, join us on our countdown to the start of the Bioblitz on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake) and spread the word. We look forward to seeing you!