Warden Joe was thrilled to spot swallows returning to Trimley Marshes this week. Swallows visit the UK from Africa, arriving in spring and leaving in autumn. They build mud and straw nests on ledges, often in farm buildings and outhouses, or under the eaves of houses. Swallows are agile fliers, feeding on flying insects while on the wing.  

The illustration below shows the different features of swallows, swifts, sand martins and house martins:

This Sunday will be Lackford Lakes Spring Discovery Day and we invite you to join us for fun activities around the reserve including; trails and spotter sheets, pond dipping, binocular hire, wildlife guides and spring crafts. Our team will also help visitors identify birds singing around the reserve - spring migrants returned so far include chiffchaff, blackcap, sedge warbler and reed warbler.  

Reserves Intern Anneke snapped these gorgeous buttery yellow oxlips flowering in the coppice coup at Bradfield Woods. Oxlips are Suffolk’s County flower, a rare spring flower only found in ancient woodlands of East Anglia. Similar in appearance to the deeper yellow cowslip, you can tell them apart as oxlip flowers are paler yellow and tend to grow in clusters on one side of the stem, whereas cowslip flowers (and oxlip/cowslip hybrid flowers) grow around the stem.  

Bradfield Woods is also famous for its carpets of bluebells, which are just starting to flower and will be spectacular in weeks to come – watch this space! 

The Knettishall Heath reserve volunteer team had a well-deserved guided walk around the reserve to see the impressive results of all their hard work and do some future planning. They were joined by Steve Rutherford of the British Naturalists Association to share some of his fantastic ID skills! 

The recent warm spring sunshine has tempted some reptiles out sun-bathing, a common lizard was seen at Trimley Marshes and a grass snake at Snape Marshes.