Monday 27 April 2015

In full song!

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. 

Peacock butterfly © Sarah Steggall

Green-veined white © Sarah Steggall

Speckled wood © Sarah Steggall
And a Speckled wood in its more normal pose © Rich Berry
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. 

Garden warbler in full song © Barry Woodhouse
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.

Whitethroat singing © Barry Woodhouse
Male Blackcap adds his voice to the chorus © Rich Berry
Chiffchaff © Rich Berry
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!

Common Tern over Sailing lake © Barry Woodhouse
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.

Kingfisher at Hawker pool  © Sarah Steggall
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.

Curlew with some tern’s in the background © David Mackey - Macks Photography
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.

Monday 20 April 2015

There be Dragons!

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.

Common Sandpiper © Barry Woodhouse
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.

Grass snake © Sally Wooldridge
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.

Willow Warbler in fine tune © Barry Woodhouse
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.




Monday 13 April 2015

Incoming!!!

Well, as predicted, the spring arrivals have made a big push and we've seen lots of new arrivals this week. This was the Spring arrivals sheet at the start of last week:

Last week's arrivals list.
And this is how it stands after this weekend:

This week's arrival list.
As you can see, the lull in the cold westerly wind has allowed a large influx of migrant birds to arrive.  A lot of these sightings are thanks to you, our visitors to the reserve who come back into the centre after a wander around and let us know what's been seen, thank you.

The Willow Warbler has been heard singing in the car park and as you can see from above, we still await the Garden and Reed warbler, the latter of which should appear any day soon as it has already been spotted at one of our nearby reserves Redgrave & Lopham Fen on the 10th April.

One of the first to lead the way last week was a Cuckoo, which could be heard in Ash Carr, and two lucky visitors, Jane and Ken Rowe, actually got to see it. However, the weather changed again and it is thought that the bird has moved on as it hasn't been heard since. But fear not, according to the BTO Cuckoo Tracker, many of the tagged cuckoo's are yet to arrive back. So plenty more to come.

Another bird that's been a bit elusive this week is our Kingfisher's. Often a familiar and popular sight at Lackford, however, now is the breeding season and the females are most likely sitting tight on the nest whilst the male is off out on the constant hunt for food to feed the female. There have been a few glances of the birds around the reserve, but not many where the bird is sat perched. So keep your eyes open, they are still around, just a little busy, that's all.

One bird that has been seen and heard in increasing numbers this week was the Blackcap

A singing Blackcap.

A not so tasty snack!

Those regular visitors to Lackford know that our cake is a lovely tasty snack to reward yourself with after a long arduous walk watching all the wildlife that is here. Hard work, but someone has to do it! However, there was one who found what it thought was a tasty snack, but was not impressed. Who? Our regular night time visitor to our feeder cam, the Tawny owl. But this time, he brought along a catch, an unfortunate toad. However, it didn't take long for the owl to realise that toads are not good food and the scene ended well for the poor toad who made his escape.


Toads have a couple of defence mechanisms that help stop it getting predated upon. The first is that they emit a foul tasting poison from their skin. This causes the predator to be sick and secondly the toad when attacked will puff itself up and make itself as rigid as possible, again making it awkward for it to be consumed. This last defence can be seen in the video just before the toad launches itself of the feeding post. It's also interesting to note that the feet and under belly feathers of the owl are clearly quite wet, which means that it actually took a dip in the shallows to catch the toad as opposed to catching it on dry ground.

Not just birds

As the temperature rises, it's not just the birds that are coming out to play. The insects too are beginning to emerge with lots of sightings of various butterflies this week including Comma, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small White and Green-veined White. New visitor Robert Quadling got some amazing shots of the insects that were about last Thursday and shared them on Twitter (@SWTLackfordLake).

Green-veined White © Robert Quadling

Beautiful Peacock butterfly © Robert Quadling

Plenty of these now to be seen, Bee-fly © Robert Quadling
As you can see from the above photo, Bee-flies are also in abundance at Lackford. These are flies that look like bees and are parasitoids of mining bees. They seek out the holes of mining bees and then flick their eggs from their tails into the hole of the bee whilst hovering over them. The species above (Bombylius major) is known as the Dark-edged Bee-fly and is quite common in Southern England. 

If you see or photograph an insect whilst walking around Lackford and want to know more about it, then pop into the centre and ask our staff, or send your photo to Hawk, or insect man at hawk.honey@suffolkwildlifetrust.org and we will endeavour to help you.

Another regular sighting this week has been the Stoat and one person who was lucky enough to grab a photo of it was regular visitor Ellie Stones who shared her picture of it on Twitter.

Peek-a-boo Stoat. © Ellie Stones

Spring holiday events

We had some events on over the Easter break and one of the was Egg Quest. Demand for this event was so high, that an afternoon session had to be set up to cater for it with over 90 people attending.

Activities for all.

Daisy with her self made mouse mask

Collages and big smiles

Bringing the art out in kids

A selection of the collages that were made.
Thankfully, the weather stayed lovely and sunny and everyone had a good time. If you would like to attend one of our events at Lackford, then please see our Forthcoming events panel on  the right hand side of this blog, or alternatively, you can look at our What's on guide for the whole of Suffolk here.

Sightings

Well, as you already know from above, lots of new things about. But there was also another new arrival that wasn't on the list and that was Little Gull. These have been varying in numbers all week from 2 -12 birds seen at the sailing lake and also at Steggall's. Barry Woodhouse managed to get some shots from over the Sailing lake.

Little gull in flight © Barry Woodhouse
Little Gull © Barry Woodhouse
Other sightings include the Red Crested Pochard's at Fullers mill hide, the Great Crested Grebe's are now nest building near Bess' hide and this is also thought to be where the Kingfisher's are nesting too. Ash Carr is still good for Nuthatch, Coal and Marsh tit, Blackcap, Goldcrest and Treecreepers. Redshank, Oystercatchers, the occasional Goshawk and Red Kite can be seen from Bill's hide and Chiffchaff's can be seen and heard nearly everywhere from around the reserve.

Tufted Ducks, can be seen at the Sailing Lake and at Steggall's and the Sparrowhawk has been seen from various parts of the reserve.

A pair of Tufted Ducks © Barry Woodhouse
House Martin's were also spotted over the sailing lake and the centre which brought our bird species total up to 118 birds for 2015
The current bird species list for 2015 so far

Remember, if you have sightings you wish to share or add to our board, please do so by popping into the visitor centre.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

One Swallow, does not a summer make

Aristotle once said, “One Swallow, does not a summer make...”. Well it’s a shame he wasn’t at Lackford this week then, when yesterday (Monday), 10 were seen above the centre. The first were spotted over Lackford by our regular visitor and contributor Ian Goodall on April 1st (of all days), over Long Reach where Bess’ hide is situated. Ian managed to get these shots from Bess’ hide.

Swallow © Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall
So, what does this mean for Lackford? It means that there’s a very good chance that a lot of Spring arrivals will start arriving. Blackcap has, after a lot of false sightings, eventually turned up at Steggall’s and Ash Carr and there’s a lot more to come, just take a look at our Spring arrivals list, which can be found pinned to our sightings board in the visitor centre.

Plenty more to come at Lackford.
So with the wind direction set to change to a nice easterly/south easterly this week, we are expecting a lot of new arrivals at Lackford. Why not come down and see if you can help us spot these as they come in!

Activities at Lackford

We’ve had quite a few activities at Lackford this week, which were well attended by children enjoying the Half-term break. The Springtastic event was one of the sessions that was fully booked and enjoyed by all despite the windy weather.

The children and their creations at the Springtastic event.

Judging by all those smiley faces, a good time was had.

Out and about exploring the reserve.
And the activities are set to continue this week with our Egg Quest event on Thursday 9th April. The morning session is fully booked and due to the high demand, we have organised an afternoon session too from 2-4pm. But act quick as this is already half full and filling up fast. To book, call 01284 728706.

Sounds of Spring!

This weekend will also see the next Themed weekend in our Wild for the Weekend programme. The Sounds of Spring will explore the many sounds you can hear in the wild at Springtime and if you pick up a spotter sheet at our visitor centre, you can follow the trail and see if you can work out the sounds situated along the route. There is no charge for the activity, but a donation would be appreciated. Sounds of Spring starts this weekend 11am - 4pm.

Sightings

Well as we are aware, Swallows and Blackcap  have arrived on the reserve and more are to come. 3 Med Gulls have been spotted from the Steggall’s hide along with the Egyptian geese and their goslings.

Egyptian geese and goslings © David Ward
The Canada goose is still on the nest near the Double-decker hide and David sent us in this picture too.

Canada goose on the nest © David Ward
This time of year its not all about chicks and nests, there are territories to defend and unwanted attention to fend off and new member and novice photographer Pat Cutting caught this fantastic action shot of two Canada geese at odds with each other.

Time to scarper © Pat Cutting
Ian Goodall managed to capture these stunning shots of two pairs of Great Crested Grebe’s defending their territory. 

© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall 
© Ian Goodall

© Ian Goodall
The Nuthatch is still down on the Lackford Stump as well as the Marsh Tit and Coal tit and many others. Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers are being heard everywhere, but particularly in Ash Carr. Chiffchaff is to be heard everywhere around the site and Cettis Warbler’s are heard mainly around the Sailing lake path and near Bill’s hide. 

Nuthatch posing © Tracie Emerson
Red Crested Pochard can still be seen at Fullers Mill Hide, but they are tending to stay towards the far end of Mill Deep lake. On the raptor front, 10 Buzzards were seen circling over the centre car park and a Sparrowhawk was also spotted displaying over the centre. The Kingfisher has been a bit elusive of late and we put this down to that they may be nesting around the Double decker and Bess’ hides. The female is probably on the nest and the male is busy catching food. 

The sightings board.
This is how the sightings board looked as of yesterday, don’t forget, when we are open, you can find the board inside the visitor centre next to the map. We need your sightings so that others may see what’s about.