Festive Fun at Lackford

With December just around the corner, the team at Lackford have been planning an exciting run-up to Christmas that should provide something for everyone to enjoy. This will kick off with the Lackford Christmas Cracker on December 3rd (10am-4pm) where there'll be a bonfire to warm us all up, around which our Reserve Assistant Joe Bell-Tye will be talking to visitors and answering questions about the reserve and the work being done to it. Out on the trails and in the hides, knowledgeable Wildlife Guides will be present to show visitors some of the winter wildlife highlights at Lackford. But if you fancy keeping warm indoors, there'll be Christmas craft and card-making activities upstairs in the Centre, as well as festive food and drink on offer in the catering area. It's sure to be a fantastic day, with lots going on in a lovely atmosphere!

This is our Christmas Cracker which will be pulled during the afternoon of Sunday 3rd December

For the young among us, there is also Naturally Christmas (2nd December) and Wildlife Watch (10th December) where youngsters can set about making natural Christmas crafts and decorations to take home. Later in the month on 21st December there will be a Christmas Activity Morning where there will be craft making and wildlife-themed games and trails out on the reserve. Keen birders will be glad to hear that our local bird expert Paul Holness will be hosting a special Winter Birds-themed guided walk around the reserve on December 9th. It should be possible to see a wide range of birds that call Lackford their winter home, such as goldeneye, siskin and redwing, and perhaps even more unusual species such as redpoll, fieldfare and goosander. To keep you going there'll be complimentary refreshments on offer, and as much of Paul's encyclopaedic knowledge on birds as you can soak up! Paul will also be hosting his usual monthly morning walk on 13th December between 11 and 1pm. All of Paul's walks are suitable for beginners who might be new to birdwatching, and there's always a friendly laid-back atmosphere to them where questions are welcome. Bringing a pair of binoculars is highly recommended but if you don't have any they can be hired from the Centre for the day when you arrive. And on top of all this, the fun doesn't stop when it gets dark- a Members' quiz on December 20th will be held in the Centre (7:30-10:30pm) where you can put your general knowledge to the test with refreshments and mince pies. If you have any questions about the events mentioned above then you can call the reserve on 01284 728706 or to book a place on any of them then just click here.

Create Christmas decorations like this robin from last year at our Naturally Christmas craft sessions!

Whilst all this planning and excitement has been going on, it has been business as usual for the wildlife out on the reserve. At the moment, a visit to the reserve should provide plenty of opportunities for good views of our special winter wildlife. Several goldeneye are seen on a daily basis now on the Sailing Lake and on Long Reach (viewable from Bess's Hide), with hints of courtship behaviour occasionally seen. This is where multiple males may trail a female as she swims across the water, throwing their heads back, stretching their necks up and calling a grating 'ze-zeee' note to her- each male is trying to convince her to spend the winter (and the subsequent breeding season) with him rather than the other males. Numbers of other winter ducks such as pochard, teal, wigeon and gadwall are building up by the day, and Bernard's, Double Decker and Steggall's hide are excellent spots to sit and watch their behaviour. Some species of ducks are dabblers (feeding just below the water surface) whilst others are divers and it is fascinating to watch the different feeding strategies of each species, especially on a crisp, bright winters' day. Sometimes they'll interact with each other, too- its common to see coots following tufted ducks (a diving species) around as they dredge up plant material from the lake bottom to eat, with the coots looking for stray pieces that they can eat themselves, or even pinching bits from right under the bills of the tufties if they're quick enough. A more sedate resident of the pools and scrapes at this time of year (on The Slough especially) is the snipe. This beautiful tortoiseshell wader tends to feed on its own or in small groups in the muddy edges of the water, using its long, straight, sensitive bill like a motion sensor to probe the mud for the movement of worm and insect prey. Snipe numbers have been building since October at Lackford and visitors should be able to appreciate them all through the winter on the reserve.

Male goldeneye (credit: Ian Goodall)

The various bird feeders around the reserve have seen increasing action too, with plenty of reed buntings and the odd tree sparrow and marsh tit making use of the field feeders, which are filled with a special millet-based mix similar to what these birds might be able to find naturally in arable fields. Bullfinches can be heard calling on a daily basis from this area, and do keep an eye on any berry bushes (hawthorn in particular) for blackbirds and their Scandinavian cousins- redwings- in mixed groups gorging themselves on these berries. Another daily sighting is the diminutive siskin, in large twittering flocks, usually feeding quite high up on the cones of alder trees, with the odd redpoll in with them too. A close relative of chaffinches, the brambling, is also occasionally seen passing through the reserve along with yellowhammers. As wild food supplies naturally dwindle at this time of year, and as the days continue to shorten and become colder, we can expect to see more and more small birds visiting the bird feeders and relying on them for sustenance. On any visit to Lackford its well worth spending a little time watching the feeder tree in front of the Centre, where frequent daily visits from a local nuthatch, plenty of coal and marsh tits and the occasional great spotted woodpecker are highlights.

Lackford's nuthatch (credit: Jim Palfrey)

The backdrop to the feeder tree is the reedbed behind Centre pool, and this is itself host to one of Lackford's annual wildlife spectacles- the winter roosts of both reed buntings and starlings. These two birds do things a little differently, but both are worth a watch. Reed buntings tend to drop into the reeds singly or in pairs, in a drip-drip fashion, from about 3:30pm until there can be a couple of hundred birds altogether. The starling roost has been growing since early October and is much more conspicuous- a few thousand birds come from all directions in smaller groups of a few hundred at a time. As they approach, instead of directly dropping into the reedbed, they form mesmerizing clusters in the sky which constantly change shape, which always remind me of the blobs inside a lava lamp! The birds perfectly synchronize their flight so they move in time with their neighbours either side of them, and after these smaller groups merge into even bigger ones they slowly drop in the reeds like black  water being poured out of the sky. The whole 'murmuration' can take an hour and even a modest-sized one such as that at Lackford is an unforgettable experience! When dark descends and the birds are out of sight, the show isn't quite over- you can hear the crazed chatter of thousands of birds communicating with one another before they go to sleep, all talking at once! It isn't known exactly what they say to one another, but it probably includes information about good food sources and the location of predators that the birds might have encountered earlier in the day. A lot of shuffling goes on too- there is a hierarchy along each reed stem that contains birds, where the older, more experienced and more dominant birds sit higher up the stems.

Starlings dropping into the reeds on a recent murmuration. (credit: Mike Andrews)

Whilst the reserve itself will always be open and accessible during daylight hours right through the festive period, the Centre's opening times will vary:

Now until Sunday 10th Dec: Normal opening hours (tuesday-sunday, 10am-4pm).

Monday 11th Dec- Wednesday 13th Dec: Centre open from 10am-4pm.

Thursday 14th Dec- Sunday 17th Dec: Centre will be closed.

Monday 18th Dec- Thursday 21st Dec: Centre open from 10am-4pm.

Friday 22nd Dec- Tuesday 26th Dec: Centre will be closed.

Wednesday 27th Dec- Sunday 7th Jan: Centre open from 10am-4pm.

Monday 8th Jan: Normal opening hours resume (tuesday-sunday, 10am-5pm).

Your Christmas shopping could prove a hoot- owl-themed gifts in the Centre at Lackford (owl soft toys, owl foldable shopping bags and owl coin purses) 

If you find yourself stuck for ideas for what to get your friends and family this Christmas, at this time of year the Centre is well-stocked with wildlife-themed Christmas cards and imaginative gifts, so why not pop along to have a look at what's on offer and combine your next visit to the reserve with a bit of Christmas shopping? Many of the gifts are a little different to what you can find on the High Street and are ideal for anyone who loves wildlife, and you can support the Trust at the same time. I hope this update has been useful, and please do get in touch with the reserve if you'd like to find out more about what's going on over the next couple of months.


by Heidi Jones

Lackford Lakes volunteer.

The First Arrivals

Just as we say goodbye to the swallows, willow warblers and whitethroats that have spent their summer at Lackford, we eagerly watch the skies for the arrival of the birds who call the reserve their winter home. Some species are seen exclusively on the reserve during the colder months, whilst the numbers of others are boosted during the winter by extra individuals arriving from the continent, so that familiar birds become easier to see. 

                                  

The earliest migrants on site this autumn were a flock of siskins, which can be seen feeding on the cones of alder trees around the Centre, usually quite high up. These tiny blue-tit sized finches have a penchant for Lackford and it is about the best site in Suffolk for them- in a 'good' year a group of 50-100 birds are a common daily sight, though they make quite a discreet call that makes them a little harder to find than noisier flocks such as goldfinches or starlings. As well as alder cones, they enjoy nyger seed and peanuts- when the weather turns very cold towards the end of winter they can sometimes be found on the bird feeders. This is a natural response to wild food supplies beginning to run low that mean many winter birds are easier to see as winter progresses. Male siskins are a beautiful canary-yellow, and the females a more subtle greenish colour, but both sexes have a streaky pale belly and a noticeably forked tail. For every 14 siskin that spend their winter in the UK, one redpoll does too. At Lackford it is worth searching among the siskin flocks for these- they are a shade bigger, and are a creamy white with dark streaks all over, a red forehead patch in both sexes and a red breast too if you are looking at a male bird. 

Female redpoll (lacking a red breast)
credit: Mike Andrews

Male siskin feeding on alder cone seeds

Credit: Jim Palfrey

Also in the trees and already present on the reserve are the redwings- thrushes that are so named for the rusty-red patches under the wings most obviously seen in flight. They migrate to the UK (often overnight) from Scandinavia and Iceland and are often seen in a mixed flock with blackbirds, song thrushes and the larger fieldfares, devouring berries in a hedgerow. Red fruits such as hawthorn berries are their favourite, and are eaten first, and ivy berries seem the least palatable as they often hang around on the bushes until the spring, eaten only when all others have gone. This year, redwings were first spotted at Lackford in early October and they are likely to hang around until March or April. Fieldfares have been spotted on site over the past weeks- these are big, confident, darker-coloured thrushes that arrive a month or so later than the redwings but in roughly the same numbers. It is thought that because these are bigger than redwings, they can tolerate the harsher conditions in northern Europe for longer before choosing to migrate south. Look out for both species on the berry bushes around the Kingfisher trail or underneath fruiting trees such as crab apples, eating the fermenting windfall.

Redwing (with the rusty-red patch under the wing just visible)

                                             

Fieldfare eating its way through a hawthorn bush
credit: Bryan Tillott

Moving out of the trees and onto the Lakes themselves, the duck dynamic has changed too- October 31st saw the first goldeneye arrive. As I write this we have just a couple of birds on site (numbers should build up over the next couple of months), and perennially good spots to see them include the Sailing Lake and Long Reach (in front of Bess's Hide). Both sexes look similar to tufted ducks, of which we have hundreds, but the male goldeneye has a circular white patch in front of his golden eye and the female has an orange tip to her short stubby bill. They are very active diving ducks and in late winter put on an impressive courtship display- several males may be seen in pursuit of a female, each throwing their heads back whilst making a 'nhair-nhairr' call that is best described as sounding like a clock being wound up. Although a few pairs breed in northern Scotland (<200 pairs), the birds at Lackford are mostly likely to have come from NE Europe or Scandinavia.

A goldeneye pair (male below, female above) on a choppy Sailing Lake!

What is particularly noticeable on the Slough is the boosted numbers of duck species which are present year-round. Gadwall, teal, shoveler (dabbling ducks) and mallard, pochard and tufted duck (diving ducks) have been increasing to the point where the scrapes can look pretty busy, with different species sometimes wing-to-wing with each other!

A sleepy mixture of teal and gadwall in their winter finery on The Slough
credit: Mike Andrews

Recent work by the reserve team has helped make the Slough more attractive for these waterbirds- the vegetation has had its annual cut, and the bridge leading to Bernards' hide has been replaced- the new bridge is set higher up the bank which allows the water level on the Slough to be raised without the path flooding as a side effect. These wetter conditions and the extra mud exposed by the vegetation cut provide ideal feeding grounds for waterfowl, and it has also been popular with snipe. These can be seen in small groups amongst the ducks and on 31st October 14 birds were spotted from Double Decker hide. Outside of the breeding season, snipe are much easier to see not just because they are naturally bolder and more prone to feeding out in the open, but also because UK numbers swell from roughly 75,000 to 1 million birds. So most of the individuals you can see at Lackford will not be local birds but will have come from Iceland, Scandinavia or Northern Europe.

Snipe in reed-stem camouflage mode!
credit: Mike Andrews

Birds such as tits and goldcrests become easier to see now the trees are beginning to lose their leaves, but this is not the only reason why they are more conspicuous- numbers are boosted by birds from the continent. As the weather turns colder these birds naturally form mixed feeding parties consisting of blue, great, coal, marsh and long-tailed tits, with goldcrests (Europe's smallest bird), siskin, treecreepers and sometimes nuthatches all tagging along too. It's thought they do this because the more pairs of eyes there are in the group, the easier it is to find a food source when the weather is harsh- eating enough each day despite the shorter day length can be very difficult. More pairs of eyes in a flock also no doubt make it easier to spot predators such as sparrowhawks who find hunting more straightforward when the trees are bare. As you walk around the trails at Lackford (Ash Carr is always a hotspot) these mixed groups are quite obvious- they tend to be quite noisy and if you take some time to stand still as the group passes by you they will often come quite close- their preoccupation with food means they don't always pay much attention to people!

A winter view outside Paul's Hide
credit: Mike Andrews

All of these birds are very different from one another in terms of their feeding and social habits, but the one thing they all have in common, from goldeneye to goldcrest, is the fact that they migrate south at the end of the breeding season to escape colder weather. Often the conditions they leave behind determine how many birds the UK sees each year- when it is particularly cold in Scandinavia, we receive far more redwings and fieldfares on site. Winter visitors which we expect still to see at the reserve include goosander and, if we're lucky, pintail (both out on the lakes). For the most up-to-date information on our winter sightings do pop in to the Centre at the start of your visit, and let us know what you see whilst exploring the trails.

Sunset over the Sailing Lake
credit: Hawk Honey

by Heidi Jones (Lackford Lakes volunteer)