Here comes amazing autumn!

Well what wonderful weather we've been having here at Lackford as summer draws to a close. But fear not, because the hot summer haze has gone, it doesn't mean the wildlife has too. This is an interesting time of year with various creatures moving around to find suitable habitat to spend the coming winter months. As you may have seen from previous posts, ospreys have been seen flying over the reserve, the latest one was seen this week flying over Bess' hide.

Osprey over the reserve © Mick Odell

This weekend, despite the change in weather, we had hundreds of house martins and sand martins flying over the sailing lake, stocking up on insects ready for the long journey back to Africa. Wigeon have started to be seen from Bess' hide, one of the first signs of autumn. It's not just about birds either, here at Lackford for the second year running ivy bee has been recorded feeding off the ivy on the Church walk near the field feeders. This is the last of the solitary bees to emerge in the year and its emergence is timed with the flowering of the ivy, its main source of food. A new species to science, being first discovered in 1993 and found in the UK in 2001, its spread is being monitored across the UK and we're glad to have it here at Lackford.

Ivy bee on Church walk © Hawk Honey

We also look forward to seeing the arrival of our winter ducks such as goldeneye, pintail and the beautiful goosander. This is the time when our gulls starts roosting on the sailing lake too and we also get the odd rarity there as well. However, with anything up to 20,000 gulls coming in to roost during the winter months, seeking them out can be quite a rewarding task. However, watching the spectacle of these birds arriving every evening is also a sight to behold.

The smaller birds such as siskin, redpoll, redwing and fieldfare also visit Lackford and can often be seen in large flocks numbering over 150+ birds. Who knows, we may even be really lucky and get the odd waxwing too!

Then there is the fantastic fungi that is scattered around the reserve. Last year we have tha amazing looking earth star and chicken of the woods in Ash carr.

Earth star on the reserve.

And don't forget the wonderful autumnal colours that adorn Lackford this time of year as the chemicals within the leaves change to beautiful reds and golds. So fear not that summer has gone, winter is not far away and we have all the wonderful wildlife that it may bring with it to look forward too.

Autumnal colours around the sailing lake.

Opening times changes

We will be closing a little earlier on the 22nd September at 4pm, last food orders at 3.30pm. On the 28th September we will be opening a little later at 11am due to stocktaking. The reserve will be open as normal and these times only apply to the visitor centre. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Latest events

On Wednesday 21st September, published wildlife photographer Kevin Sawford will be giving a talk. The life of a Suffolk Photographer will start at 7:30pm and ends at 10pm. There is no need to book, just turn up at the centre.

There are still spaces available on Paul's monthly Bird identification and song walk, on Saturday 24th Septamber 11am - 1pm. Just click on the link to book your place at £4 per person.

For the children, we have Naturally Art where all the children always have a great time creating art inspired by nature.

There's been a new path laid around most of the kingfisher trail thanks to Tesco's Bags of Help, which raised £8,000 from the carrier bag tariff. The new path is more compacted for easier wheelchair access and replaces areas of the path that were quite difficult to negotiate in wetter conditions.

New path on the kingfisher trail.

Sightings

The kingfisher has been showing well across the whole of the reserve including the visitor centre and very few visitors leave the reserve without seeing one. As reported earlier wigeon are being spotted in ever increasing numbers. This is a strange time for ducks as they go through eclipse and even your basic mallard can look like something quite exotic. Black-tailed godwits have been spotted on the Slough this week along with green sandpiper, common sandpiper, snipe and greenshank.

Black-tailed godwit on the slough © Alan Theobald

Little grebe, great crested grebe and pochard have been seen from Fullers mill and Bess' hides and two snipe were seen from Paul's hide as well. Goldcrests have been seen in the bushes around the double-decker hide and treecreepers have been spotted along the path to Steggall's hide.  Whitethroat and tree sparrow have been seen around the visitor centre and tree sparrows have also been seen on the field feeders along Church walk.

Juvenile female kingfisher © Barry Woodhouse

Don't forget to report your sightings in the visitor centre before you leave, we want to know what you've seen whether it is common or not.

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.

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!

It's getting chilly!

Well, it's now December and the chilly mornings are with us. Despite the various flooding events last week that saw much of the reserve closed, the birds were not deterred from visiting with Pintails  and Goosander being spotted on the Slough, Goldeneye on the sailing lake and our regular Kingfisher and Sparrowhawk on the visitor centre pond. Bullfinches have also been seen around the centre in the car park and by the pond. Redwings and Fieldfare still continue to be seen on the track leading to the reserve.

Pintail by Ian Goodall

The Starlings are still murmuring and numbers are growing with an estimated 17,000 at last count. The time the murmuration happens is never set and can be early or late. Best to get here around 2pm so you can have a nice walk around the reserve and then settle in the visitor centre with a nice cuppa to see the display, which last week, was quite spectacular.

The new hide

The new hide is nearing completion and is on course for its grand opening on the 18th December. The path to Steggall's is closed from the Atlas hide onwards this week whilst the old hide is removed from the site.

Looking good, new hide is almost complete.

Well it's now December and the weather has begun to turn. Despite the various flooding last week due to the River Lark bursting its banks, it hasn't deterred the birds. A few Pintails have been sighted on the Slough as well as more Fieldfares and Redwings spotted around the reserve. The Kingfisher is still showing well at the centre lake. Goosanders, Goldeneye's, Bullfinches and a Little Egret have also been spotted around our reserve and the Sparrowhawk is still a regular visitor.

Naturally Art

We had one of our Naturally Art workshops this week where children get to create things inspired by the natural world.

Rosie and a friend get to work

All getting ready to start the day

Wonder what these will grow into????

The finished creations from our Naturally Art participants

We have a Naturally Art workshop on a Saturday once a month, why not bring your child to express their imaginations! Or, if you can't wait till next month, why not bring them along to our Frozen Festive Fun Christmas Activity Afternoon on 22nd December 1-3pm for 4-10 year olds. There will be a winter trail, Frozen inspired festive craft activities and other decorations and all for only £4.

Pre-booking is essential for this event as places fill quickly, to book your place call 01284 728706

Murmuration

Murmuration!

Last week we reported that there were around 800 starlings roosting at Lackford and that we could only hope that this would get bigger. Well it seems a lot of you were hoping too, because this week the murmuration increased to over 8000 starlings! As you can imagine, this is a sight to see and is well worth the trip. The murmuration happens right outside the Visitor Centre so you don't have to stand outside in the cold waiting for it to happen. You can come in and sit in the warmth with a cup of tea, coffee or chocolate and a nice slice of cake and wait for the aerial display to begin!

A small video can be seen here on our Facebook page. For those of you who cannot see this post on Facebook, here's some images. Hopefully, we'll get some more video that we can upload next week. In the meantime, if you have any pictures that you taken of this murmuration that you would like to share with us, please do, the link is on the right.

At ~8000 birds, this murmuration can be impressive, but don't forget, it wasn't many years ago when Lackford had over 30,000 birds murmuring here. So keep your fingers crossed. The best time to be here to grab a seat is around 3pm.

Just part of the murmuration over the Bernard Tickner hide

The path towards Bernard Tickner's hide.

Other sightings

We forgot to mention last week that Tree Sparrows were still being heard around the reserve, although not seen. So it's nice to know they are still about. Other sightings include 7 Goosanders, Goldeneye, Redwings, Coal and Marsh tits and Fieldfare, which seem to be on the increase this week. We've also heard via Twitter, that Waxwings have started to arrive on the Suffolk coastline, so here's hoping some make it further inshore too.

We also found this beauty visiting the Visitor Centre on Thursday 20th.

Peacock Butterfly looking for somewhere to overwinter.

These along with some other butterflies are always looking to come indoors now to sleep the winter out and if you find one in your home the best thing you can do is place it in your shed. Just make sure your shed has a few holes in it so that it can escape come spring.

Steggall's Hide

Work at the new hide has been proceeding well and it is now starting to look more like a hide thanks to all the work put it by our reserve team volunteers.

The walkway to the hide with screened sides.

In all weathers, the team work hard.

Looking good

Reserve Manager Will with some of the volunteers

The birds view of the hide.

Roof section on and the wonderful volunteers

Upcoming events

Don't forget to always check our forthcoming events on the righthand side of the blog, there may always be something there of interest for all. Next up is the Bird Identification and Song Guided Walk with our bird expert Paul Holness. We still have spaces, so if you're interested, get in touch and book your place!

Stoats and Starlings

Well there hasn't been much change of late with sightings on the reserve. Goosander, Snipe and Goldeneye are still showing well and Siskin, Redwings and Fieldfares are also being seen. There were still Common Darter dragonflies still being spotted on Wednesday. 

We had a possible sighting of a Goshawk on Sunday, unfortunately, no photo. One for you to keep your eyes open for and if you get a photo, we would love to see it.

There seems to be a Stoat living in a hole in front of the visitor centre and spent most of today (Friday) catching and bringing back Shrews to his hole. Again, no photos, but we might try and get the trail cam set up to see if we can get some good pictures of it.

One new sighting this week however, was that of a Grey Wagtail by Sarah Steggall and what's more Sarah sent us the photo of said Wagtail, thanks Sarah.

Grey Wagtail © Sarah Steggall

The Sparrowhawk has also been making regular visits to the feeder area outside the centre, looking for an unsuspecting Blue tit or similar. David Ward sent us this photo of it flying around the reserve.

Sparrowhawk © David Ward

 David also shared his pictures of our most favourite visitor to the reserve, the Kingfisher.

Kingfisher with fish © David Ward

Diving Kingfisher © David Ward

People have also been sharing their photos with us on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake) as well. Here's one from Nick Ford

Kingfisher by Nick Ford

If you would like to share your photos with us on the blog, we would welcome them. Just send them to us in an email lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Starlings!

Tonight we had around 800 starlings fly in and roost on site. This is a huge increase to the 100 or so last week and we can hope that it will only increase and that the murmurations just get bigger, such a fantastic sight.

Winter Dusk Walk

There are still places available on our Winter Dusk Walk with Site Manager Will Cranstoun on Friday 21st November 2-4pm. This will be a very informative walk looking at our winter wildfowl including the spectacular Gull roost and is good for all ages. Whats more, it's only £3 per person, but you will need to book beforehand to secure your place. You can do this by either calling the centre on 01284 728706 or by email lackford.education@suffolkwildlifetrust.org Don't miss out!

Christmas Cards

Have you bought your Christmas cards to send to friends yet? If not, why not come down to us and buy your cards here from our lovely Christmas collection.

Our lovely Christmas cards from £2.75 a pack

You can enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake and look for Kingfishers whilst you decide what cards to buy. But be quick, they're going fast!

  

Stoats and Starlings

Well there hasn't been much change of late with sightings on the reserve. Goosander, Snipe and Goldeneye are still showing well and Siskin, Redwings and Fieldfares are also being seen. There were still Common Darter dragonflies still being spotted on Wednesday. 

We had a possible sighting of a Goshawk on Sunday, unfortunately, no photo. One for you to keep your eyes open for and if you get a photo, we would love to see it.

There seems to be a Stoat living in a hole in front of the visitor centre and spent most of today (Friday) catching and bringing back Shrews to his hole. Again, no photos, but we might try and get the trail cam set up to see if we can get some good pictures of it.

One new sighting this week however, was that of a Grey Wagtail by Sarah Steggall and what's more Sarah sent us the photo of said Wagtail, thanks Sarah.

Grey Wagtail © Sarah Steggall

The Sparrowhawk has also been making regular visits to the feeder area outside the centre, looking for an unsuspecting Blue tit or similar. David Ward sent us this photo of it flying around the reserve.

Sparrowhawk © David Ward

 David also shared his pictures of our most favourite visitor to the reserve, the Kingfisher.

Kingfisher with fish © David Ward

Diving Kingfisher © David Ward

People have also been sharing their photos with us on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake) as well. Here's one from Nick Ford

Kingfisher by Nick Ford

If you would like to share your photos with us on the blog, we would welcome them. Just send them to us in an email lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Starlings!

Tonight we had around 800 starlings fly in and roost on site. This is a huge increase to the 100 or so last week and we can hope that it will only increase and that the murmurations just get bigger, such a fantastic sight.

Winter Dusk Walk

There are still places available on our Winter Dusk Walk with Site Manager Will Cranstoun. This will be a very informative walk looking at our winter wildfowl including the spectacular Gull roost and is good for all ages. Whats more, it's only £3 per person, but you will need to book beforehand to secure your place. You can do this by either calling the centre on 01284 728706 or by email lackford.education@suffolkwildlifetrust.org Don't miss out!

Christmas Cards

Have you bought your Christmas cards to send to friends yet? If not, why not come down to us and buy your cards here from our lovely Christmas collection.

Our lovely Christmas cards from £2.75 a pack

You can enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake and look for Kingfishers whilst you decide what cards to buy. But be quick, they're going fast!