We arrived at Lackford around half ten and had a coffee in the visitor's centre. The centre looks over a small pond with some bird feeders. Star birds on these feeders were two REDPOLLS, but also included SISKINS and COALTITS, amongst the more commoner TITS.
This MOORHEN was around four foot off the ground pecking away at the seeds on the table.
These two male REDPOLLS were in breeding plumage finery
Just in case you find the birds too esoteric, here's an animal everyone knows, feeding on peanuts underneath the bird feeders
We headed out onto the reserve, walking past the sailing lake, the largest lake at Lackford, where there was lots of trees being felled beside the path, and the old seats being replaced by these cool looking if somewhat impractical new benches. On the lake amongst the TUFTIES were three male GOLDENEYES, along with small numbers of other ducks. Wildfowl numbers were low as a whole, with a lot of them seemingly starting to head out to their breeding grounds - most of the overwintering ducks at Lackford don't breed here, they head off up north to more suitable breeding areas.
The next lake, the Slough was, as usual, the most busy of the lakes. Unlike the rest of the other lakes it has a mixture of habitats, from deep water, to shallow, to exposed mud, to reedbeds and grassland, and as a result it attracts the most birds. There were the usual mix of ducks with large numbers of TEAL on the mud, along with some SHELDUCK, GEESE, CORMARANTS etc..
An overview of the Slough
TEAL
As you can see from the photos above the day was very overcast with periods of light rain. The day did clear up somewhat but the sun never fully came out.
Despite all the exposed mud there were no waders present on the Slough except for a pair of OYSTERCATCHERS - there were three pairs on the reserve, all equidistant to each other.
OYSTERCATCHERS
From the Slough the path went to the eastern lakes, and as it did so passed through an area of wet woodland known as Ash Carr. Now in this area of woodland is a fallen tree known as the Stump. If you out food down then birds turn up - they're so used to it now - that you can just stand there and take photos. I have put the pictures up on a separate post. A few CHIFFCHAFFS had tentatively started singing, I'm not sure whether they are overwintering birds or new migrants, but its always good to hear their songs - its one of the harbingers of Spring. There was a small flock of REDWINGS, and the woods seemed to be alive to the call of the many SISKIN there.
The Eastern Lakes, composed of five large lakes, were on the whole quiet. A remnant wintering population of a few WIGEON were on Long Reach, whilst a flock of LAPWING were on Plover Lake. A pair of EGYPTIAN GEESE were as usual loitering on the causeway between Plover Lake and Wilson's Flood.
EGYPTIAN GEESE
The causeway area was being grazed by old breed sheep - the speckled white and brown sheep were producing black lambs. When the reserve 4x4 turned up, they all ran over expecting food.
After that the reserve path doubles back on itself to go back to the visitor's centre where we had lunch.
So a lot was present, you can always guarantee that at Lackford, it just never seems to reach its potential, there should be more birds here, for example I don't see many waders here, and duck numbers should be greater than they are. I have yet to see anything unusual here, it just has large numbers of the commoner species. But then again I can't really complain, I got some good photos here that I wouldn't get at say, Minsmere. Much love, Keith
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