Lets start with the ducks – pochard, tufted duck, gadwall, shoveler and teal are all present in good numbers.  The sailing lake and the slough are probably the best locations for these.  For goldeneye try the sailing lake or the lakes at the eastern end of the reserve.

Wader wise – lots of lapwing and one or two snipe about.  Lapwing best on the slough and snipe are down at Steggall’s hide.

Small bird wise – The feeders are currently busy with long-tailed tit, marsh tit, blue tit, great tit and coal tit.  A great-spotted woodpecker is also visiting the feeders near the centre.  Around the centre and sailing lake edge, we have seen quite a few siskin, reed bunting and the odd lesser redpoll.  In Ash Carr – look out for treecreeper, nuthatch and grey wagtail.

During the winter months, it is always worth staying to the end of the day when some of our birds arrive to spend the night on the reserve.  We still have a small starling roost (today it was around 1,500 birds) and on the sailing lake we have thousands of gulls flying in to roost there – carefully scan the gulls for some unusual ones like Caspian gull and yellow-legged gull.

So there is lots of birds around during the first few days of January at Lackford Lakes.