Lackford Lakes - 27/10/2021

Around forty SNIPE were present on the Slough

Well something is certainly amiss. Looking out onto the empty lakes at Lackford, I wondered where all the birds had gone and with each new lake I visited I really was getting concerned as again and again there were no birds. Never in the all the times I have been to Lackford have I seen such an emptiness, because at whatever season of the year there is usually a large amount of birds that call this place home. Where there should have been thousands of birds, today the numbers barely scraped into a hundred. Is this climate change or merely just some local factor, or really something not worth worrying about, its hard to tell. What is for certain is that this has been the worst Autumn migration in my memory, by a long way.

The Slough, the only lake with any birds on

Only one lake held any birds, the Slough, which is usually the best water on a normal day. Water levels were unusually high, inundating the various islands and spits. DUCK numbers were lower than normal, but still had decent numbers of GADWALL, TEAL, TUFTED DUCK and SHOVELLER, with a few newly returned WIGEON. Perhaps the most interesting sighting on the Slough was the large numbers of SNIPE present, the dearth of other birds making this sighting so unusual. Amongst the cut reeds, and pockets of sedge around forty were present, and those were the ones I saw, and its most likely to be a few more of this secretive species hidden out of view.

GREAT TIT on the Stump

With the crash in water bird numbers, it was heartening to see that the number of smaller birds were holding up. In Ash Carr, the main body of woodland in the reserve, a large TIT flock held GOLDCRESTS, COAL TITS, TREECREEPERS and a pair of NUTHATCH. Someone had put seed out on the Stump, the remains of a fallen tree, which attracted some of these birds down to feed and be photographed. Not birds but also feeding on the seed were some SQUIRRELS and a few MICE, the mice were too quick to be photographed, zooming past, a little flash in the lens.

The new Double-decker Hide is looking pretty good, if only there were some birds about...

I know they're only birds and numbers fluctuate naturally but this is really getting quite worrying. Birds are the barometer of ecosystems, being so visible and being high up the food chain, they are the first sign of things going wrong in our countryside. And with this, for want of a better word, emptiness, something seems to have gone wrong, especially in a place that's so good for birds as Lackford. What's so worrying is how quickly it has come about and it seems we don't have much time left. And with COP26 happening, where people debate over what to do about climate change, maybe its too late, maybe wildlife populations in this country have crashed. And you saw it with the birds first, it won't be long before it happens to us.