Siskin, water birds and a bit of singing

The last few weeks have seen quite a lot of activity from our birds on the reserve. From our hundreds of siskin around the trails to plenty of water birds to be seen on our lakes. Some of our resident birds are beginning to think about the breeding season with song thrush singing around the reserve. We have now recorded 73 bird species on the reserve this year.

One of the main joys of the winter at Lackford Lakes is the hundreds of siskin to be found and heard around our trails. Best feeding locations to find these include the trees by the sailing lake and the trees heading towards Hawker pool at the other side of Ash Carr. Look carefully at these and you may see a lesser redpoll amongst them too.

Winter is also a great time to see flocks of small birds feeding in flocks by the trails and at the feeders at the centre. Look out for long-tailed tits, marsh tit, coal tit and we even have a chiffchaff out there to find. In Ash Carr look out for nuthatch and treecreeper as you head along the trails there.

Even though it is winter, many of our smaller birds are beginning to think about breeding as the daylight lengthens. Song Thrushes are very vocal now along with singing dunnocks, blue tits and great tits. Listen out also for drumming great spotted woodpecker. Last week, the reserve team cleaned out our nestboxes and did any repairs so now is the time to get those boxes up and ready as they are already looking.

Another aspect of winter at Lackford Lakes is the water birds and watching what they are up to from feeding to resting. The sailing lake and the slough on the blue trail are the best locations to watch these. Large numbers of shoveler and teal can be located on the slough. Whilst the diving ducks like pochard and tufted duck prefer the sailing lake. This winter lots of black-headed gulls, gadwall and coot seem to be feeding in tight groups on the sailing lake – worth a look when you are next visiting. Also, worth checking for winter ducks is our long reach lake viewable from Bess’s hide. Here all our little grebes seem to be found.

Using binoculars are a great way to get closer to this action and to witness their behaviour. You can hire some binoculars from the centre when you next visit or even buy some from the shop. On Sunday 13^th February, we have one of our binocular demonstrations where you can look through binoculars and get advice on what may suit you.

Lastly, I will leave you with the list of birds seen so far during 2022. There seems to be one of two common birds missing like pied wagtail. Our full sightings list can be found in the centre and please add your sightings to our book also found there.