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.

The Summer Fair

It's been a little quiet on the bird front at Lackford this week, yet the kingfishers have been showing very well and a day doesn't go by without a visitor reporting their sighting of this fantastic bird. They have been spotted from 7 places around the reserve including Steggall's, Atlas, Bess', Orchid, Bill's and the Double-Decker hides and the bench at Hawkers Pool. The current hotspot seems to be the Double-Decker and Bill's hides with many a great photo being taken by our regular visitors.

Kingfisher © Ian Goodall

Another sighting that has become quite a regular sighting over the last 2 weeks is of an otter. It is often seen from the hides on the north side of the reserve and in particular from the Double-Decker around the overflow pipe to the left hand side. When is it best to be seen? That's the had part. It doesn't seem to have a regular timetable and has been spotted at various times of the day, it really is luck of the draw.

Otter from the Double-Decker hide © Barry Woodhouse

Green sandpiper has been spotted a few times from Bill's hide and other waders such as common sandpiper, greenshank and black-tailed godwit have been spotted from time to time. Teal, pochard and lapwings can also be seen from various locations around the reserve.

One rarity to Lackford also appeared this week in the shape of a house sparrow. We know that sparrows have had a hard time of it of late and that they are not actually rare. However, Lackford is not the usual habitat for these lovely little birds, so it was quite a pleasant surprise seeing these on the feeders outside the visitor centre.

The hot weather of late has been very good for our insects too with plenty of dragonflies and butterflies being seen on the wing around the reserve. Of these butterflies, painted ladies, peacock, small tortoiseshell, brown argus, common blue and red admirals have been many. 

Painted lady © Joe Myers

On the dragonfly front, we have seen a few brown and southern hawkers, common and ruddy darters, banded demoiselle's, emerald damselfly, and lots of common blue damselflies.

Ruddy darter © Duncan Fletcher-Brown

The hornet's nest is still present with the occupants going about their business without bothering anyone, including those spectators who watch the comings and goings. One hornet to watch out for at Lackford, is not actually a hornet, in fact, it's not even a wasp. It is actually a fly, the UK's largest fly at around 2cm long, the hornet mimic hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) is a harmless copy-cat that uses its looks for two purposes. Firstly, by looking like a hornet, it is able to sneak inside the nest of hornets without being attacked. It gets inside the nest to lay its eggs, which provide a service to the hornets by eating the detritus at the bottom of the nest and thus helping to keep the nest clean. The second reason for such a clever disguise is of course, camouflage. Not many, if any creatures actually attack hornets, so looking like one, despite being completely harmless, goes a long way in helping to survive. If you would like to see one for yourself, hotspots for these are along bug alley between Reed hide and the Double-Decker. They can often be seen nectaring on the bramble flowers.

Hornet leaving the nest © Duncan Fletcher-Brown

Not a hornet, just a fly. © Hawk Honey

Summer Fair

This Sunday 30th August, sees our annual Summer Fair at Lackford Lakes. There will be lots of activities, crafts, pond dipping, stalls and much more. Although entry to the reserve is usually free, for this one day only, there will be a charge of £3 adult, £2 child.

Hopefully we will see you at the weekend.

Every little helps

Well last weekend was our themed weekend Things with Wings. Being a Bank Holiday as well, the reserve saw plenty of visitors, many of whom also came to see what had been caught in our moth trap overnight. The moths caught included poplar hawkmoth, white ermine, cockchafers and many more.

A fresh looking White Ermine moth

Poplar hawkmoth hangs onto a Cockchafer for support.

Yellow Belle, a Breckland species.

The visitors were amazed at the different varieties that we caught and some were even brave enough to hold them.

Getting to know a Billywitch

Poplar hawkmoth wows those looking on.

Due to the success of the moths, we may be holding moth trapping days more often, so watch this space.

The weekend also saw us hold our first bat walk on the reserve. Thankfully the weather held out and the bats enthralled all those who attended the walk. We saw and heard several species on the bat detectors including pipistrelle’s, noctule’s and daubenton’s to name a few. Look out for more of these bat walks in the future.

Every little helps

As many of you know, there are many people who help out at Lackford by donating their time, whether it is in the visitor centre or out on the reserve. One group that help out are the Young Wardens. Last week they got busy out on the reserve helping to clear some willow to create a dragonfly viewing point for visitors to the reserve. They also helped by filling the new tree nursery with some saplings and planting some saplings out on another part of the reserve.

Maria gets ready to plant some new saplings in the tree nursery.

A sapling planted out on the reserve.

A big thanks to the Young Wardens, your work has not gone unnoticed. If you are 10-15 and would like to join the Young Wardens, then click here for more details.

If you would like to help out in the visitor centre, we are still seeking some bubbly, confident volunteers to help out on Sunday’s, Monday’s (during summer period) and Tuesday’s. See here for more details.

Plants for sale

We have had a fresh delivery of plants with a big thanks to all those who have donated them to us. Please feel free to pop along and have a browse, all we ask for is a donation and all proceeds goes towards the Trust.

Give a plant a home in your garden.

Sightings

The past week has seen the kingfishers showing well and now their young have hatched, they will be seen more often as the busy task of feeding the chicks gets underway. Many of the smaller birds such as the tits and warblers will have had their young fledge by now, so keep an eye out on the reserve as the parents still feed their young, but out in the open now.

Kingfisher approaches with food.

Red crested pochard still have 3 young down at Fullers mill hide and the shelduck still have 7 young on the Slough.

Birds of prey are still to been seen with hobby’s around the visitor centre and sailing lake. There have been more sightings of late of red kite and other birds visible this week were buzzard’s, kestrel and sparrowhawk.

Swifts have been plentiful, especially when the wind picks up, and so have house and sand martin’s. Great crested grebes are nesting down on the east lakes. This is also a good area for the dragonfly spotters amongst you. Recent and regular visitors Tony and Sandy (@tonyandsandy) recently saw and photographed this unusual looking four-spotted chaser.

Libellula quadrimaculata praenubila form (@tonyandsandy)

This form of dragonfly is known as a praenubila form and can be distinguished by the extra darkening of the wing-tips, which isn’t seen in the normal form. It is thought that this darkening is caused by the water temperature whilst the dragonfly is still a larvae. 

A normal looking Four-spotted chaser taken by wildlife guide Colin Robson.

Hairy and broad-bodied chaser’s  have been seen flying around the reserve and red-eyed, common blue, azure and banded demoiselle have also been seen in numbers near Bess’ hide.

Red-eyed damselfly by @tonyandsandy

Butterflies are also being spotted around the reserve. This weeks sightings include brown argus, red admiral, small copper, peacock, brimstone, speckled wood, comma and still the occasional orange-tip.

All things small.

Well what a week it’s been at Lackford, with lots of new arrivals to be seen. A common sight this week has been lots of ducklings and goslings wandering around with their very protective parents keeping an ever watchful eye over their precious young. One of these new families was our only pair of red crested pochard’s who were spotted swimming around happily showing off their new additions.

Red crested pochard and young.

Ben Alder managed to capture this shot of the Canadian geese and their young down near Ash Carr and posted it to our Facebook page.

Lackford lakes is ideal for families © Ben Alder

A little bit further afield and harder to see are the chicks of the shelduck’s, but it’s still worth trying to get a peek if you can and the best place for this is either at Bill’s hide or the double-decker hide looking arose to the Slough.

Shelduck’s and young

We also have several great crested grebe’s nesting around the reserve and the best place to see this is at Bess’ hide where 2-3 nests can be seen, one of which is almost in front of the hide. It won’t be long now before we begin to start seeing the grebe chicks, fingers crossed.

Great crested grebe on nest outside Bess’ hide.

If you go to our Youtube channel, you can see the above grebe doing some bond affirming head shaking.

Moorhhen’s and coot’s  are also hatching chicks on the reserve at the moment and some of these are actually visible on the visitor centre pond. However, here is a clip from Reed hide taken earlier this week.

Of course, it’s not just about the waterfowl. Josephine Sweetman visited Lackford recently and her sharp eye managed to capture these superbly camouflaged treecreepers.

Newly fledged treecreepers © Josephine Sweetman

Such amazing camouflage © Josephine Sweetman

As the weeks progress, we are bound to see many more fledglings around the reserve and we look forward to seeing your photos of them. If you are lucky enough to capture these in the viewfinder of your camera and want to share it with us, then please send it as a .jpg file to lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org where we will do our best to feature it in the blog. Or you could share it to our Facebook or Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake). We look forward to seeing your photos as do many of our expanding army of followers.

Sarah Steggall emailed us her photos from her visit this week. Sarah was lucky enough to capture another two new arrivals, banded demoiselle and red-eyed damselfly.

A male banded demoiselle © Sarah Steggall

Red-eyed damselfly © Sarah Steggall

Dragonflies and damselflies can be seen in most places around the reserve as was the case earlier this week when several were ticked off our ‘Return of the Dragons’ list, which can be seen in the centre.

Busy as a bee!

This time of year sees a lot of bees buzzing around the reserve, only a couple of weeks ago, a swarm of honeybees escaped from a hive on an adjacent property and spent the night sleeping on a fencepost on a non-public part of the reserve.

Honeybees resting on a post.

Not a lot of people realise this, but in the UK, there are around 250 species of bee. 24 are bumblebees, 1 species of honeybee and the rest are known as solitary bees. These are small bees that do not live in social groups like honeybees and bumblebees. Instead, they create their own burrow, or find a previously created burrow and fill it with pollen and an egg before sealing it up to allow it to develop over the winter before hatching the following year to begin the process all over again.

Some of these bees can be found on the reserve and they are usually much smaller than honeybees. One of these species of bee that has already been found this year on the reserve is the two-coloured mason bee (Osmia bicolor). This bee is rather special in that it lays its eggs inside empty snail shells before filling the shell with small gravel and then it goes off to collect bits of straw and grass to build a teepee around the shell to help camouflage it.

Then there are leaf cutter bees that find old holes in wood or even the holes in bamboo canes that many people have in bug boxes inter gardens. These bees do the same thing but create a chamber inside the hole out of very carefully cut pieces of leaves, before laying an egg in the hole and filling it with pollen and then sealing the chamber with another perfectly cut piece of leaf.

Some bees are tiny, so tiny that they will build their nest chambers inside holes left by nails removed from timbers.

A tiny (7mm) mining bee.

Some bees to keep an eye out for on the reserve are tawny mining bees, early mining bees and chocolate mining bees.

Chocolate mining bee

Early mining bee

Brown carder bee

A mining bee seals off a chamber in a bamboo cane.

Some of these bees are not mining bees, for just like in the bird world there are cuckoo bees! These bees are kleptoparasites of mining bees and do not build nests or chambers for their young. Instead, they look for the nest holes of other bees and when the host bee is away, they sneak in and lay an egg. This egg will hatch before the egg of the mining bee and will eat all the provisions stored for its original host. Cuckoo bees even exist in bumblebee species, where a similar looking in appearance queen bee, will seek out a nest of its host species, sneak in and will kill the host queen, then it forces they worker bees of the host species to rear the young of the cuckoo bee.

If all this talk of bees has whetted your appetite for more, there will be a one day course on mining bees next year at Lackford, details of which can be obtained by phoning 01473 890089.

Wild for the Weekend

This weekend is Wild for the Weekend -Things with Wings. Come down and see what you can find on the reserve. We will have Wildlife guides around the trails to help you spot the things on your spotter sheet and at 1pm, we will be showing the moths that we caught in our traps the night before. 

It’s not only the things that fly in the daytime either, we will be holding a special bat walk on the Saturday (23rd) to hear and see the bats that hunt on the reserve at night. This will start at 9pm and will end around 11pm. This event has limited spaces and BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL. Please phone 01284 728706 to do this, price is £2.50 per person.

Sightings

Turtle dove’s have been spotted and heard on the reserve this week. The best place is on church walk in the early morning or late evening. Nightingale is still singing at the reserve, although not as much as in previous weeks. This week might be the last chance to hear this beautiful song. Hobby’s can still be seen around the sailing lake and over the double-decker hide. Common sandpiper has been spotted from time to time at Steggall’s hide and redshank from Bill’s or double-decker.

Red kites are being seen on a more regular basis at the reserve now and it won’t be long before they are a common sight on the reserve. Hirundines are gathering in large numbers now and often the skies over the reserve are often filled with swifts, swallows and house martins. However, we have yet not been able to coax the swifts into using our swift boxes.

Reed, sedge, garden, willow and cettis warblers can still be heard singing around the reserve, many of these just from the centre car park. Another bird often heard but not seen on the reserve is the cuckoo. This is often heard calling around the sailing lake. Lesser whitethroat and whitethroat can be heard and seen down towards Reed hide and treecreepers and nuthatch’s in Ash Carr. 

Don’t forget to pop into the centre to see the sightings board when you arrive, things move around all the time and it’s worth checking first. Also please pop into the centre to add your sightings to the board regardless of how common you may think it is. We have visitors from across the UK and further afield who don’t see the birds that we get in their regions. 

Stoat was seen to chase and catch a rabbit down at Ash Carr this week as well as still being seen around the visitor centre much to everyones delight. Also spotted this week and causing a commotion for some birds were otters. These were spotted from Bess’ hide and captured on camera by Andy Johnson and share on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake).

Otter gets mobbed by a black-headed gull © Andy Johnson

Tucking into a tasty crayfish snack © Andy Johnson

A close up shot from © Alan Reynolds

Not the loch ness monster, it’s an otter © Alan Reynolds

Butterflies are still everywhere to be seen and this will be one of the last weeks where you will get to see orange-tip’s as the end of their season approaches.

Don’t forget, we want your sightings, so pop into the centre and let us know, you can even sit down with a nice slice of cake and a cuppa tea whilst you tell us about it. 

A welcome return

Yes, a very welcome return this week to the very endangered Red Data Book species. Yes, turtle dove's have been heard and spotted  around the reserve, but only solitary or pairs of birds have been spotted at this stage. 

Another new visitor to the reserve this week is our first dragonfly, which has always been present at the reserve lurking at the bottom of a pond, but has now emerged into adulthood to begin the summer days looking for a partner. A broad-bodied chaser female was spotted and photographed by Tony and Sandy (@tonyandsandy) on twitter.

Broad-bodied chaser by Tony and Sandy

They also managed to capture this beautiful and a first for this year, brown argus butterfly.

Brown argus by Tony and Sandy

Butterflies have been in abundance this week too with still lots of orange-tips, small white, green-veined white, speckled wood, comma and peacocks about. 

Comma by Duncan Fletcher Brown

Another bunch of new arrivals came  in the shape of long-tailed tits and was captured by Terence Chaplin.

5 newly fledged long-tailed tits await for the parents to bring back food. © Terence Chaplin

Terence even spotted this slow worm making its way along the path near Reed hide

Slow worm by Terence Chaplin

More damselflies have been spotted on the reserve this week and our wildlife guide Colin Robson managed a photo of a blue-tailed damselfly.

Blue-tailed damselfly by Colin Robson

A grand day out

We had a lovely review this week from a couple of visitors at Lackford, who enjoyed their day so much. they decided to write a blog about it. You can read all about their adventure in their excellent blog here.

Sightings

Well, the sightings are still coming in and there's lots to be seen here at Lackford, as the sightings boards testifies to and the eagle eyed among you will have noticed we are now on 127 species of bird at Lackford.

Sightings board at Lackford

Our newest species to hit the list are a pair of redstart and turtle dove, which we mentioned earlier. Common sandpiper, hobby's, cuckoo and the warbler's (Cettis, garden, reed, sedge, willow, etc) can be seen from all around the reserve, starting in the car park where many are heard when visitors get out of their cars.

Reed warbler by Ian Goodall

Marsh tit with spiders web nesting material by Ian Goodall

Kingfisher's are still nesting down at Hawker pool, although they are often spotted as a blue flash as they dart back and forth from the nest.

Buzzard's, sparrowhawk can be seen from time to time around the reserve and we are getting more sightings of red kites drifting over. This species has made a spectacular recovery since breeding projects began in the late eighties/early nineties and have spread eastwards across the country ever since. So in time, these magnificent birds will soon become a regular sighting at Lackford.

SPECIAL BAT WALK 23RD MAY

As part of our themed Wild for the Weekend -Things with Wings event on the 23rd May, we will be having a bat walk at Lackford to explore that we don't often see. Places are limited, so booking is essential and you can do this by phoning 01284 728706. 

Don't miss out, book your place now!