Lackford Lakes is a twice designated SSSI Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve situated in West Suffolk just north of Bury St Edmunds. It has 11 lakes with 9 hides and spans over 360 acres of ex-gravel extraction works. The reserve has a visitor centre that is open Tuesday - Sunday and Bank Holidays.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Wow, where does the time go? It only seemed not too long ago the reserve was getting a dusting of snow, now leaves are on the trees, flowers are in bloom and people are beginning to venture out in t-shirts. This was especially the case over the bank holiday weekend at Lackford, where we had the latest in our themed Wild for the Weekend event called May Bugs!
The weather, all except for Sunday, held out for us and the bug hunting and pond dipping sessions were well attended by eager adventurers wanting to explore unknown worlds. Saturday and Monday saw Visitor Assistant Hawk out on the reserve encouraging children to get involved in bug hunts. Armed with sweep nets and bug pots, the children got down to finding the creatures that inhabit the long grass and hedgerows near the double-decker hide. A variety of bugs were caught for Hawk and volunteers Joe and Ollie for them to identify, the majority of which were spiders. The air was alive with orange-tip butterflies, which had many children eager to capture one, in hot pursuit but often without success.
Lets get bug hunting!
One regular captive of the bug pot was ladybirds, with 7, 22 and 24 spot ladybirds being caught and recorded. The were plenty of small beetles being caught too including this beautiful green tiger beetle.
Green tiger beetle.
The green tiger beetle is one of those insects that has some fascinating facts about it. These are fast running insects that are indicative of heathland as they love bare sandy soil which they scuttle over to catch their prey, which is mainly other insects.
They can run so fast that they have to stop frequently to allow their eyesight to catch up with them! Their large bug like eyes, allow them to see for long distances making them very hard to catch as they can see you approach from a distance.
The Monday saw a welcome return to the lakes, damselflies! Yes, there seemed to be a small emergence event down by Atlas hide of blue-tailed and large red damselflies. They could just be seen as their fine gossamer wings flitted in the sunlight just above the grass. Lackford has a Site of Special Scientific Interest designation for its 17 species of dragonflies, so these two species are just a taster of what is to come.
The pond dipping event on Sunday saw Visitor Officer Mike and volunteer Joe outside, but under cover exploring the depths of one of our ponds. Lots of interesting things were found from horsehair worms, diving beetle larvae, shrimps and dragonfly larvae. Despite the weather, everyone who came said they really enjoyed and were amazed at the diversity of life often unseen in such a small pond.
Sightings
The lovely weather over the weekend saw many people seeking out the wildlife at Lackford, so the sightings were many. Hobby’s seemed to be the highlight for many with 5 or 6 being spotted at a time towards the rear of the sailing lake.The nightingale is still in full song in the scrub near the education meadow and lesser whitethroat, garden and willow warbler’s are being heard from around the car park. Redshank is still being seen at the Slough and buzzard’s can often seen circling from all over the reserve.
Also to be seen in numerous places are blackcap, reed and sedge warbler’s, marsh tit’s and treecreepers.Swifts, swallows, house and sand martin’s continue to be seen and the common sandpiper can occasionally be spotted down at Steggall’s.
A rather busy sightings board.
Butterflies have been busy too with many orange-tips and peacock butterflies around. Brimstone’s and comma can be seen near the double-decker hide and small copper’s are to be found along the path between the centre and Tickner’s hide. Keep your eyes peeled ahead of you along this path and you may even spot a green tiger beetle.
Binoculars
Some of the wildlife above can be seen quite easily around the reserve, however, some of it we all need a helping hand to see. Not all of us are lucky enough to own a pair of binoculars, or sometimes through plain forgetfulness, we leave them at home only to realise this when you park the car in the car park. If this sounds familiar, fear not. Pop into the centre and see a member of staff and you can hire some binoculars so your visit isn’t a wasted journey.
We also stock a range of fine binoculars from Viking. These binoculars are excellent for wildlife spotting and are of a good quality that is built to last.
A fine range of optics
So whether you fancy making the step to buying your first pair of binoculars, or fancy upgrading your old faithfuls, pop in and try our new range at Lackford. All of our staff will be able to give you expert advice and help you find the ideal binoculars for you.
Things are getting busy on the reserve with lots of reports on a daily basis of the various wildlife that resides here. It's not just birds that are being spotted, as the weather gets warmer, many insects are beginning to emerge and plenty of butterflies have been spotted this week including Small copper, Speckled wood, Peacock, Small white, Orange-tip, Green-veined white, Brimstone and Common blue.
Also spotted outside the visitor centre recently emerged from its winter sleep under the soil, was a Cinnabar moth. Unfortunately, it made its getaway and flew off to find a partner before anyone got a chance to get a photo. However, if you manage to get a photo of one on the reserve, then please do send it in to us so we can share it with others (lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org). Many people are also spotting another beautiful moth on the reserve, the Ruby Tiger moth.
Ruby Tiger moth.
The reserve has been buzzing to the sound of various Hoverflies and bees this week and we have yet to spot our first Dragonfly. The first of which usually emerges in April, the Large Red Damselfly, one to keep your eyes peeled for.
Nick Elsey and Rubyna Sheikh sent us these pictures from their latest visit.
Alderflies mating
Hoverfly Eristalis pertinax on Blackthorn blossom.
There was even a cute little jumping spider found outside the visitor centre by Visitor Assitant Hawk Honey.
A cute jumping spider Marpissa mucosa.
So the invertebrates are out in force at Lackford at the moment and we're pretty sure there's more to come. Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos, very much appreciated.
Owl news!
Our Tawny owl has been visiting its regular perch again and unlike last time where it brought back a rather unappealing (and unimpressed) toad, this time it had something much more palatable (if you're an owl of course) to eat, a mouse. All can be seen here in the video which is can also be seen on our YouTube Channel.
At the end of the video you will also see a clip from our mammal box, which is only a few metres away from where the owl sits. Here you can see the mice play fighting over who gets what feeding area in the box, totally unaware of the horrors going on outside.
Bank Holiday Weekend!
Lots going on at Lackford this Bank Holiday weekend including our new Wild for the Weekend theme, Maybugs! On Saturday and Monday, our insect specialist Hawk, will be out and about on the Kingfisher trail helping you find out more about the insects at Lackford and on Sunday, Visitor Officer Mike will be running pond dipping sessions between 11-12 noon and 2-3pm (£1 per person). Just pop into the centre when you arrive to register your interest.
Sightings
The talk this week is not so much sightings, but the sounds on the reserve. The Nightingale has been quite melodious of late, singing near the centre in the bushes between the education meadow and the ringers hut. Many people have been coming into the centre remarking on the amount of warblers (Cettis, Garden, Willow, Sedge and Reed) they can hear whilst walking around.
Cuckoo’s have also been heard calling this week from around the sailing lake and down at Ash Carr too. Blackcap’s and Chiffchaff’s have also been in full song around the reserve. Whitethroat’s and Lesser Whitethroat’s have also been spotted around the reserve too.
There have been some new arrivals too this week with Common and Arctic Tern’s on the Slough and Sailing lake. Also, we had a brief visit yesterday from a pair of Black-tailed Godwit’s on the Slough. These have brought our species total for 2015 up to 125 birds!
The Kingisher’s, who have been elusive of late have been found to be nest building on Hawker’s pool in one of the false banks. The pair have been displaying well, sitting outside for up to 20 minutes or more for the last couple of days.
Hobby is being seen more often the last couple of days with several sightings from the Double-decker hide, as well as being spotted over the Sailing lake and the Slough. Curlew was also spotted on Sunday on the Slough.
Other sightings include Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Marsh tit and Treecreeper in Ash Carr. Lots of Swift’s, Swallow’s and House Martin’s all around the reserve. Red Kite spotted at height drifting over the Car Park. Buzzard’s are quite regular towards northern side on the reserve.
Big apologies to Colin. A small technical issue wouldn’t allow me to upload your Nightingale photos to the blog. Will make sure this is sorted by next week. Sorry.
We Need Your Sightings!
Regardless of how unimportant you think your sightings are, we still need them. Only this week, one visitor was amazed to see that we had Egyptian geese as she had never seen one before because she lives in Wales. Yet, to most people living in and around water around East Anglia, Egyptian geese can be quite a common sight and are often not reported. So, regardless of how common you think it may be, we still want to know so that we can let others know. So pop into the centre and let our staff know so we can add your sightings to the board.
Photography competition!
As you can see from the blog and recent posts, there are some excellent photographers amongst you and now’s the time to enter your photos to Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Photo Competition. All details are available on the website and the competition doesn’t close until November, so plenty of time to get that winning shot! In the meantime, if you’ve got a photo that you took whilst on the reserve that you would like to share, then please send it to us at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org with the words ‘For the blog’ in the subject line. We cannot promise your photo will get in, but we will do our best.
A big thank you!
Once again, a big thank you to all our contributors, whether your photos were published or not. All the photos sent in, help us to show the diversity of wildlife that exists at Lackford and helps make Lackford just that bit more special. Keep them photos coming in, thanks.
Well our Spring Arrivals list is now complete thanks to the last two Garden Warbler and Whitethroat arriving this weekend.
The list as of 17th April, now completed.
As you can see, the surprise early visitors were the Blackcap, Hobby and Swift, the last of which turned up this weekend.
Swifts now flying past visitor centre.
These arrivals, coupled with a few other arrivals not on the list such as Common Sandpiper seen at Steggall’s this week, bring our bird species list up to an incredible 123 species for 2015.
To see our complete list that is being continually updated as the birds come in, click here. Also, make sure to follow us on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake) and also on Facebook. Any new sightings we have, we will post them here too.
Of course, it’s not just about the birds, there’s the other wildlife that visits and lives on the reserve and one of these was spotted the other week by one of our volunteers Sally Wooldgridge.
Yes, Sally was lucky enough to spot one of these harmless Grass snakes moving through the reeds in the shallows near Bess’ hide. Well done Sally and thanks for sharing to our Facebook page.
Butterflies have also been in abundance and with temperatures set to rise in the upcoming weeks, their number are sure to increase too. One little beauty that’s been spotted several times this week is the aptly named Orange-tip butterfly.
A male Orange-tip feeding (nectaring).
It is only the male that has the Orange tips to the wings, the female has black tips. Ye both sexes have a mottled green and white underwing with gives them incredible camouflage when they sit with their wings tightly closed.
There be dragons!
Other insects that you should be on the look out for are of the family Odonata, which everyone else will know as Damselflies and Dragonflies. Lackford has a special SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) designation for its 17 species of dragonfly and now is the time that they start emerging from the depths of Lackford’s lakes where they’ve spent the last 3-5 years feeding as an aquatic invert and fish and other insects. As the temperature rises, the water gets warmer and this triggers something in the larvae, which makes them begin to climb out of the water via a reed stem. Once out of the water, the next stage commences where the larvae, which sheds its skin as it grows, will shed its skin for the last time and will emerge as an adult dragonfly (or damselfly). It will pump up its wings unfurling them as it does so and after a brief period of drying out in the rays of the sun, the dragonfly will take to the air as a supreme aerial insect hunter.
Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly
The diet of a dragonfly is huge, so huge that 75% of it’s adult life is spent eating. Someone once said that “if Dragonflies ate Gazelles, Lions would go hungry.”
One of the first to emerge will be the Large Red Damselfly. Damselflies can be distinguished from Dragonflies by two simple observations. First the wings. Most Damselflies hold their wings back in line with their bodies when sitting at rest, Dragonflies hold their’s out 90ยบ away from the body. The second thing to look at is the abdomen. On Damselflies, the abdomen is long and thin, Dragonflies vary in length, but for the most part, their abdomens are much thicker. there is one more observation, but you have to get a bit closer to see it and it’s all about the eyes. Damselflies eyes are set apart from each other, whereas Dragonflies eyes meet in the middle and are relatively huge for their head.
A pair of mating Large Red Damselflies.
If you want to come to Lackford to see some wildlife, don’t forget that we have a large range of FSC guides in the shop to help you identify the things you see and it’s always worth chatting to the staff to find out what is happening where.
Sightings
At last, the elusive Kingfisher has been spotted and is showing well at the false bank at Hawker Pool. It is believed that they may nesting there and feeding their young, so this is a good place to try on a regular basis if you want to see Kingfishers. However, as always, it’s best to ask in the centre first to save a wasted journey. Common Sandpiper as mentioned above has been spotted from Steggall’s along with Lapwing, Egyptian goose and Tufted Duck. Red Crested Pochard can still be seen from The Fuller Mill hide and Great Crested Grebes are nesting near Bess’ hide giving everyone a good show.
Little Ringed Plover, Redshank and Oystercatcher to name a few, are being spotted on the Slough. Willow warbler and Nightingales are still being seen and heard from around the car park outside the visitor centre and Blackcap and Chiffchaff can be spotted all around the reserve.
The Spring Arrival list may be full, but there’s still more to come and over the next few weeks as more and more birds arrive, the reserve should become full of the sounds of birds singing and calling. One of these special ones to listen out for in the coming weeks is Turtle Dove, if we’re lucky. These birds are having a very hard time of late with over hunting in Europe and loss of habitat. If you think you’ve heard or seen one on the reserve, then please share your sighting with the staff in the centre so that we can share it with others, thanks.
