Lackford Lakes (Suffolk Wildlife Trust) - Thursday 7th May 2015
View Over The Sailing Lake At Lackford Lakes
Garden Update: We’ve lived in Watton for nearly 3 years this year and today, for the first time Jan heard a Cuckoo from our drive, it wasn’t that far away either.
Lackford Lakes: Being the only chance for us to get out during the week we wanted to go to one of the places that had a disability scooter. Our first choice was RSPB Minsmere but both of theirs were booked for the day, another consideration was Rutland Water but we wanted to wait until the Osprey chicks had hatched, another choice was Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Lackford Lakes and fortunately their scooter was available.
View From Bill's Hide
It has been about 4 years since we last visited Lackford and that was when we lived in Bressingham on the Norfolk Suffolk border. We left home at 9.45am and then it was a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze and the temperature was showing as 13˚C. As we got nearer to Lackford the clouds built up and we had the odd shower of light rain except for one very squally period of rain at about 3pm, otherwise it was a lovely day. On the way to Lackford we saw a Muntjac Deer and 2 Magpies apart from all the usual Corvids, Wood Pigeons, Pheasant and Partridges.
Tufted Ducks On Floating Nesting Platform
We arrived at Lackford at 10.40am after getting a little lost on the way (my fault for not having the atlas out). We were a little disappointed that the scooter wasn’t able to get to the new hide which we were eagerly looking forward to visiting but we understood the reasoning. While we were having coffee in the visitor centre we met an old colleague of Dawn, our Daughter-In-Law, who we met at her wedding. Bill is one of the staff at Lackford and is full of knowledge about wildlife. I envy him because he has made better use of his retirement than I have of mine. While we were having our coffee we saw 2 Canada Geese, Blue and Great Tits and a moorhen attempting to hang onto the bird feeder (not very successfully I might add).
Good Habitat
As we set off from the centre we were given lots of advice as to where the best places were to see certain birds and we also met Bill again who pointed us in the right direction to see one of the 2 Little Gulls that were on the lakes. We had already seen a Blackcap and heard Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers.
One excellent thing (amongst others) they have at Lackford are what they call ‘Sound Points’ which gives information of what types of bird might be heard in the location and a description of their song. As someone who normally can’t make much sense of calls that are described such as “Piece of Bread and Butter” etc. I found the descriptions easy to understand and was able to identify the birds straight away. Top marks for that.
Anyway we went to the location Bill had sent us to see the Little Gull but we failed miserably. There were plenty of Black-headed Gulls but for the life of us we couldn’t see the Little Gull. Setting ourselves up in Bill’s Hide and Bill pointed out to us, modestly, that the hide was here long before he was! The best sighting we had from this hide was a Reed Warbler, we’d seen plenty before and we could hear his song before we saw him. The difference was that this one actually stayed still for some time while he preened himself enabling us, for the first time, to get some decent footage. Normally you see them and then they’re gone. The only downside was that for most of the time we were filming him, his head was partially concealed by a leaf.
Then we made our way to the Reed Hide and as we arrived we saw a Wren turn up with a beak full of fly and insect life and after checking us out the Wren went into a tangle of Brambles where the nest was obviously located.
View From The Reed Hide
When we’ve been to the Reed Hide before it has been an absolute gem for Dragon and Damselflies but it is a little bit early, although Jan had seen a Damselfly from Bill’s Hide. We spent a long time in this hide having our lunch there as well. Nobody came into the hide for the whole time we were there. It was a shame because they missed a treat. For quite a while a Moorhen was the only visible bird but the reedbeds and bushes were alive with birdsong and eventually birds began to move visibly in front of us; Sedge Warblers (our first visual sighting), Reed Warblers, Reed Buntings, a Pair of Blackcaps, a Lesser Whitethroat and a couple of Magpies. Now you might say Magpies are just black and white, but the varieties of blue which make up their colouring is just outstanding when you see it close up at this time of year. Jan also spotted a Red Kite drifting over the reserve, which we found out later when we got back to the visitor centre, that we had been the only people to have seen it. A good object lesson in remembering to look up from time to time when in a hide and expect the unexpected.
Magpie At The Reed Hide
After leaving the Reed Hide we made our way to the Double Decker Hide seeing plenty of Orange Tip Butterflies, A Small White, A Wood White and a Common Carder Bee on the way. Jan could hear plenty of birdsong in the trees and bushes but we didn’t see anything.
Iris
We got to the hide just before the heavens opened, the wind got up and the temperature dropped considerably. Although it was a long hard shower it was the last of the day leaving a beautiful afternoon and evening. A Muntjac Deer that had been feeding quite nonchalantly in front of the hide flew for cover and the birds just hunkered down in the pouring rain. We could see 2 nests from the hide, a Canada Goose and a Coot’s nest, we were quite surprised at how long they left these nests unattended. Another surprising thing for us was that in our recent visits and perambulations around watching wildlife, we have seen quite a few young birds particularly Moorhens, Coots, Ducks and Geese but the only young birds we saw here were 3 goslings of a pair of Canada Geese.
View From The Lower Deck Of The Double Decker Hide
Muntjac Hind In Front Of The Double Decker Hide
Canada Goose Sitting Tight On Eggs During The Rain
Making our way round to the Bernard Hide we were surprised to see there were no birds visible at first, again we could hear them in the reedbeds, we just couldn’t see them. Eventually a couple of pairs of Mallard and a Black-headed gull appeared.
View From Bernard Hide
A Pivoted Perch
Interesting Reflections
Wild Flowers In Abundance All Around The Reserve
Eventually we made our way back to the Visitor Centre seeing several Cinnabar Moths near the centre. These stunning red and black day flying moths are a real treat. They never once landed as they searched for mates and their favourite plant, Ragwort so we were unable to get any pictures. We deposited the scooter (how I would love to have one of these of my own) back in the centre and reported our sightings. What surprised me was that we had seen only a handful of people in our visit but one of the staff told me that they had had 77 visitors in the afternoon alone.
Sitting in the afternoon sun just outside the Visitor Centre listening to Nightingales and Willow Warblers singing was an absolute joy. I did catch a quick glimpse of a Nightingale before it retreated into the bush as we arrived.
The View From Orchid Hide Over The Sailing Lake
Making the short, but arduous walk for me, to our last hide, the Orchid Hide which is situated overlooking a sailing club. Gone were the mass of Black-headed Gulls of the morning with just a few remaining plus 3 Mute Swans and some Geese (Canada and Greylags) and then as if by magic we were entertained right in front of the hide first by a Common Tern and then would you believe it, a Little Gull. We thought we’d seen one a few years ago at Brancaster but we weren’t 100% sure but this time there was no doubt especially as in the near vicinity was a Black-headed Gull to compare it with. As were watching the Little Gull and the Common Tern, a photographer from the next village to Wicken in Cambridgeshire came in and was overjoyed to rattle off some excellent pictures. As we were sitting there he said what’s that and I caught a very brief glimpse of a bird disappearing along the bank of the sailing lake. My first thought was that it was a Sandpiper of one sort or another but he had managed to rattle off a few pictures of the rear end of the bird disappearing into the distance before going out of sight. Having consulted the oracles I’m still not sure what the bird was but it may have been a Turnstone.
Interesting Habitat Outside The Orchid Hide
One of the downsides of suffering badly from tinnitus is that you can’t always hear people very well, especially if there are other ambient sounds like water lapping against the hide, wind noise, birdsong etc. and this chap was sitting the other side of Jan so I had a complete conversation with him without really knowing what he was saying and just replying to what I thought he said! You can’t keep saying pardon or what did you say and it makes me feel absolutely stupid and makes me want just to withdraw from any conversations.
So how would I rate our visit to Lackford Lakes. I thought the Warden and the staff were faultless, extremely helpful and understanding. My only criticism would be that I had the worst cup of coffee I had ever had in my life but again that was probably my fault for deviating from my usual black coffee to a cappuccino, the funny thing was that it was made from something that looked more like a computer than a coffee machine. Joking aside, I’d love to go back again and I’d love to see the new hide.
We left the reserve to visit Drew and Dawn our Son and Daughter-In-Law at Garboldisham. On our way we saw 4 Hares and another Muntjac Deer. On returning to Watton we had to engage with the world again by voting in the General Election but that’s another story.
The Welcome I Got From Willow At Drew & Dawn's
This is what we saw:
Magpies**
Crows*
Jackdaws*
Wood Pigeon *
Pheasants*
Partridges*
Canada Geese** (1 pair with 3 goslings)
Greylag Geese**
3 Mute Swans
1 Red Kite
Black-headed Gull *
1 Little Gull (First for us)
1 Common Tern
Reed Buntings**
Sedge Warblers** (First for us)
Reed Warblers**
Blackcap**
Blue Tit**
Great Tit**
Chaffinch**
Coot*
Moorhen**
1 Teal
3 Herons
Tufted Duck**
Shelduck**
2 Cormorants
1 Wren
Cuckoo (heard several times in different locations but not seen)
1 Lesser Whitethroat
Swallows**
Mallard**
1 Nightingale (heard and seen)
Willow Warblers**
1 Pied Wagtail
1 Turnstone (possible)
3 Muntjac Deer (all hinds)
4 Hares
Rabbits*
1 Common Carder Bee
Orange Tip Butterfly*
Wood White **
Small White**
Cinnabar Moth**
Damselfly (unidentified)
* = Too many to count
** = Several
The Sun Going Down Over The A11 On The Way Home To Watton At East Harling
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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