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!

Spring is in the air!

Yes, spring is on its way and you only have to look around the reserve to see it. This week, after spending all of winter around the coasts, the Great Crested Grebe’s have returned to begin mating and have already been seen doing the courtship ritual out on Plover Lake, from Atlas Hide.

Great Crested Grebe tucks in to a tasty snack in the pouring rain. Photo by John Lord.

The ducks have been in the mood for love with lots of mating going on and an opportunity for the #LackfordPhotoChallenge which was captured by Rich Berry.

Mallards mating #LacfordPhotoChallenge ©Rich Berry

Just keeping her head above the water #LackfordPhotoChallenge ©Rich Berry

Another contributor Adrian Sheppard, also caught some of our Canadian Geese getting feisty around the reserve.

Angry bird ©Adrian Sheppard

As well as this perfect photobomb.

©Adrian Sheppard

Wonder what startled this Egyptian goose?

©Rich Berry

Away from birds, and a Queen Buff-talied Bumblebee was spotted flying through the car park on Sunday, a sign that spring is not far away. Something else that isn’t far away either is our next themed weekend on The Signs of Spring. Starting on the 14th March and running all through the weekend, there’ll be nature trails and questions for the family to answer as well as a spotter sheet to complete. How many signs of spring will you find around the reserve?

Plugging the gap!

As some of you may or may not know, the River Lark burst its banks last year causing some flooding on the reserve. Getting it fixed was never going to be easy as the authorities were already quite overstretched. However, with thanks to Glen Smithson of Lark Angling Preservation Society, his work and knowledge helped us plug the gap with some traditional Alder Faggots. These will help to stop the bank eroding away when the gap is infilled again.

Work begins to plug the gap.

Getting stuck in.

More piles being driven in to hold the Alder Faggots in place.

All finished.

Sightings 

First up is the mammal camera. We’ve made some tiny modifications to the mammal camera which used to have a full wooden lid. This meant the chamber was always in darkness and therefore the cameras only recorded in infra-red (black & white). Well we’ve taken away half of the wooden lid and replaced it with a plexiglass lid which lets in more light and allows the camera to record in colour. This light coming into the box has not put the mammals off in anyway and within minutes of the lid being replaced, they were straight back in there. As you can see from the video, a Common Shrew and a Bank Vole can be seen munching away at the treats inside.

If you want to see more of our videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel here

Heron’s have started to gather in large numbers around the top end of the Slough and the Kingfisher’s have been chasing each other around too on the Slough and around the visitor centre pond. Ash Carr has been a popular place to see Siskin’s, Bullfinches, Tree Creepers and Nuthatches.

Nuthatch by Stuart Finley

Other sightings this week include Marsh tit and Coal tit at the visitor centre feeders, Little Egrets flying around the reserve at several locations and Goldeneye displaying on the Sailing lake. The odd Goosander is still to be seen around the reserve, mainly at Bess’ hide. Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard’s have been spotted around Steggall’s, although beware, as the path down to this hide is quite muddy, so come prepared.

Marsh tit ©Rich Berry

Iceland Gull after a short absence is back and roosting on the sailing lake of an evening as is a Glaucous Gull (juv) and 2 2nd cy (calendar year) Caspian gulls on the Slough, which also has a large gull roost now.

Tim Humpage got this picture of the Glaucous gull. Can you spot it? we will let you know the answer next week.

Spot the Glaucous gull. Answers next week.

Do you know your gulls?

Well the Iceland Gull is still showing on the sailing lake and Peter Rutt took this photo of the gull in the gull roost. But can you tell which one is the Iceland Gull?

Where’s the Iceland Gull?

The answer will be posted at the end of the blog, no cheating! Also spotted on the sailing lake amongst the 15,000 strong gull roost this week, have been several Yellow-legged gulls. Both these and the Iceland gull have proved to be quite an attraction of late.

Half-term activities

As many of you will know, it's been half-term this week and we've had many activities here at Lackford, designed to educate and occupy the youngsters whilst away from school.

One of the most popular events, and one to get fully booked early, is the bird box building event.  

Great fun building the boxes.

And everyone who build a box got to take it home for their garden.

Many hands make light work.

 We also had nature trails for the youngsters to follow with questions and answers

 And there was also the opportunity to make your own bird feeders using pine cones, lard and bird seed, which was also popular.

Messy, but fun

 On Friday, the end of half-term was brought to an end with 27 Young Wardens between 10-15 Years helping with the coppicing of Alder at Lackford.

The Young Wardens get to work

All were rewarded with a tasty jacket potato for lunch

Away from the reserve

Unusually this week, we're going to drag you off to Shiplake, Oxfordshire where artist Wendy Nicholson resides. Wendy visited Lackford whilst on holiday and was lucky enough to get to see one of our Kingfishers. Wendy was so inspired by what she saw, that she created this beautiful textile Kingfisher

Textile Kingfisher by Wendy Nicholson

We would like to thank Wendy for sending this picture in and allowing us to share it with you. You can see more of Wendy's amazing work here.

The unveiling 

As many of you now know, Hughes Electrical of Stowmarket have very kindly donated us the large 42" Flatscreen LED for visitors to watch our wildlife cameras on. Well this week, Richard Whymark from Hughes came down to present us with the plaque which will hang proudly next to the TV. The press (Bury Free and EADT) were also there to mark the occasion and BBC Radio Suffolk also came down to talk to us about our wildlife cameras.

Visitor assistant Hawk Honey accepts the plaque from Richard Whymark.

For those of you who missed the radio interview, you can hear it again here and just move the slider along to 2:41:40.

Sightings

It's been a busy week on the sightings front with the welcome news that after spending their winter around the coast of Britain, Great Crested Grebe's have come back ready for spring at Long reach and the Sailing lake.

The Bittern made a surprise appearance in the week by walking about out in the open, away from its well camouflaged backdrop of reeds. Ken and Jane Rowe were there to catch the occurrence on camera

Bittern out in the open at Steggall's © Jane Rowe

The Little Egret has also been spotted several times around the reserve.

Little Egret © Rich Berry

Little Egret © Jane Rowe

Gold crest, Bullfinch and Siskin have been spotted along Ash Carr. Tree Sparrows have been sighted on the field feeders along Church Walk, a lovely bird to see.

The Kingfisher has been very active this week on the visitor centre pond, being sighted every day this week.

Kingfisher © Jane Rowe

Reed Buntings were spotted at the Double-decker hide and Goldeneye have been showing at the Sailing lake along with 14 Shoveller ducks. Snipe at the Slough and Buzzard's  have been seen overhead.

Don't forget to check our sightings board in the visitor centre when we're open for latest sightings, or to add your own sightings. The board is sited next to our interactive map which is updated regularly to where the latest sightings happen.

Our interactive map with photo bird counters denoting sightings.

As you can see, sightings are marked with photo counters, we currently need some more counters. So if you have any pictures of Siskins, Tree Creeper, Great Crested Grebe and Sparrowhawk that we could use, then please forward them to us at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

The answer

So, do you know your gulls? At the start we asked you if you could spot the Iceland Gull from the picture, lets see if you were right?

Iceland Gull circled