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!