Lackford Lakes & Micklemere - 13/12/2019

I always enjoy a trip over to Lackford. Ok so it doesn't have the rare birds or any amount of rare landscape, but its a great place for photography, probably the best reserve in Suffolk to capture a picture. There is the Stump, an old tree trunk where well positioned droppings of bird seed attracts birds within inches of your camera. In general the birds on this reserve are well used to people, and are not afraid to pose for a picture.

Guess what this animal is

 



It was a fairly dull day with poor lighting as I arrived at the reserve. Having a coffee at the visitors centre, watching the feeders, there were a couple of MARSH and COAL TITS amongst the commoner birds.

LONG TAILED TIT. These birds are great, they form large flocks in winter and are little bundles of energy, when other birds are hunkering down.

 



Moving out onto the reserve, there is the Winter hide that overlooks the Sailing Lake. This area of water was full of birds, in the end it would be the lake that had the most present. The bird in the largest numbers were GADWALL, with several hundred present, this reserve holds some of the largest numbers in Suffolk. Present in smaller numbers were TUFTED DUCK, WIGEON, POCHARD and COOT. For these species it has been a poor winter so far. The fairly mild winter we have endured has meant a lot of birds are still hanging around in Europe, and haven't been pushed further west to the UK.
As I left the hide there was a TREECREEPER amongst a tit flock in the poplars.

 LAPWING on the Slough.

 

The path skirted the Sailing Lake and made its way to the Slough, another lake. The most obvious birds here were the LAPWING, forming a flock of around a hundred birds, which never managed to settle, always alighting in the air at any opportunity. Water levels were high which reflected in low duck numbers with few present, mainly being TEAL.

 LAPWING are very jittery, and go to flight very easily, as other species stay on the ground.

 

KINGFISHERS were seen at various points on the reserve, although they were only observed in flight, as a bullet of blue whizzing past a hide, someone calling out "Kingfisher!" as it did so. They were seen on the Sailing Lake, the Slough and Hawker's  Pool. There weren't any birds posing for photos today, you know the ones that win photography awards.

 Female BLACKBIRD

 

Passed the Slough, on towards the Eastern Lakes, is the Stump. Its in an area of wet woodland, which has a good selection of birds. The Stump was good today. This remains of a fallen tree is where people regularly place food, to lure birds down to feed and so get great photo opportunities.

 DUNNOCK

 

As soon as I put some bird seed down, the usual culprits turned up, as if by instinct they know there was going to be food. First there was a ROBIN, then a BLACKBIRD, then a DUNNOCK.

 Male BLACKBIRD

 

The blackbirds, being the largest birds, bossed every other bird about. There was a male and a female present. Some BLUE TITS turned up, and then a beautiful NUTHATCH, with its pastel blue and ochre plumage. This is, strangely, a hard bird to find in eastern Suffolk, but is more common out here in the west of the county.

 NUTHATCH

 

Some MARSH TITS turned up. These are fairly understated, compared to similar species, but are quite scarce, needing ancient or wet woodland, and like most woodland birds are declining in numbers.

ROBIN 

Having got some decent photos I decided to move onto the Eastern Lakes. These bodies of water are five large lakes, that in the right conditions can be quite good for birds. However, today these lakes were fairly quiet. Some TUFTED DUCK, COOT and GADWALL, were all present in low numbers.
Probably the best birds were five GOLDENEYES, four males and one female spread about.

 Male GOLDENEYE

 

Between Mill Deep and Long Reach a large flock of fifty SISKIN were present feeding on the lakeside alders.

 Cobb (male) SWAN

A walk back to the car park, and Lackford was done with, a steady visit, with the usual wintering birds seen, but some good photographs made up for it.

Micklemere

With some time left I decided to go over to Micklemere which was fairly close. This is an area of flooded grassland, in a fairly dry area, and therefore attracts some good birds. The only point of access is via a hide which looks out on the reserve, so is not really the place for those looking for a hike.

 GREYLAG GEESE

 

Today the reserve was fairly quiet, except for a large flock of GREYLAG GEESE. 30 MALLARD, 25 WIGEON, 10 TEAL and a handful of SHOVELLER and GADWALL were all that was present. However with a lot of flooding elsewhere there might be less need for birds to use the reserve.

 

So it ended up being one of those days where you hope to see something, but don't quite, its always a gamble coming to these reserves. As I have stated I enjoy coming out here, getting to basics and reaffirming my love of birdwatching. Its just good to have these places to go to in the first place.