Lound Lakes; Knettishall Heath; Lackford Lakes - 14/2/2020

Sometimes there's the need to find somewhere new, to explore the unknown, to tread where my feet haven't yet trod. And bird watching is all about finding the new, the whole past time is built around seeing things not seen before.
New places unknown to me in Suffolk are only to be found around the periphery of the county, places well away from the usual sites that I visit. Today I would visit two new places, both managed by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Lound Lakes and Knettishall Heath, topped off with a vist to Lackford.

Lound Lakes
The most northerly place in Suffolk, Lound Lakes is a large, landscape scale reserve managed by the local wildlife trust. It was my first visit, and although it was nice visiting it, the place didn't particularly stand out bird wise.

 

The reserve is a picturesque landscape of many different habitats. The centre of the reserve, literaly as they inhabit a valley in the middle, are several lakes, long and thin, that stretch along the reserve. On them were small numbers of GADWALL, SHOVELLER and TUFTED DUCK, the usual ducks.
The rest of the reserve consists of woods and pasture land, which although nice, didn't really reveal many birds.
The woods were alive with bird song, and a small flock of SISKIN were about in the lakeside alders.
Lound Lakes would be a nice reserve to have as a local patch, with the time to explore it, not so much for a one off visit like I made today. However its still better than the farmland that makes up most of the countryside.

Knettishall Heath
Another Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve I have been interested in seeing but hadn't been to before is Knettishall Heath, situated near Thetford, in the Brecks. Its a fairly new reserve having been bought a couple of years before. It used to be a country park, and still has that vibe, but with further better management could become a more wild landscape, better for wildlife.
On the approach road I saw a pair of GREY PARTRIDGE in a field. This used to be the most numerous bird in the countryside, but its population has crashed. When such common birds disappear so easily, something must be wrong with our countryside, its scary thinking about how bad things may become out there in the wild.

The reserve is a landscape of open heath bordered by pine and birch woods. Today the birds seemed to be having an afternoon nap whilst I was here as the woodlands and heaths were very quiet as they can be in winter.

A primordial scene, one dating back to the ice age

 

Despite this quietness a large herd of EXMOOR PONIES were very obliging. These animals are doing all the management work here, chomping down the vegetation on the reserve, a natural process that mean humans have as little impact on the reserve as possible. In the days before humans inhabited these lands, wild animals like what the exmoors were descended from, would keep open these areas of heathland in a natural way, creating a landscape of differing habitats. Its only when humans hunted those animals to extinction that heathlands had to be artificially managed like a lot of them are today.

 

Lackford Lakes
...And last of all we come to Lackford Lakes. The thing I find with Lackford is that no matter when I go there, I never see anything different, I see nothing new. Its not putting a downer on the reserve, I enjoy going there, its just not the kind of place to see the unexpected.

TUFTED DUCK and GADWALL
 

Duck numbers were really low today, probably the lowest I have seen them here for any season. There were no pochard, a couple of wigeon, the usual TUFTIES, GADWALL and TEAL, making up most of the numbers. Three GOLDENEYE were present on the Sailing Lake, two males and a female, but that was about it.
There was a small flock of SISKINS in the alders by the Sailing lake, there were TREECREEPERS in the woods, REED BUNTINGS in the reeds, a KINGFISHER on the Slough, but not much else.

 

 

An interesting day if not one that was terribly rewarding. Its always good to visit new places, and the search for birds always makes me look for something new. I didn't see a lot today as it probably wasn't the best time of year to visit, although Lackford was disappointing. The Suffolk Wildlife Trust does such a good job looking after these special places, because without them this county would be a poorer place, these reserves are the last bastion of something wild in an industrial agricultural land designed to destroy as much as possible.