On May 30th, South West Lakes Trust held an open day at my local patch, Longham Lakes. My good friend and I volunteered to lead wildlife walks around the larger of the two lakes. Technically reservoirs, the smaller one, known as North Lake, was completed in 2002 and opened for fishing in 2009. Then in 2010, the larger South Lake was filled, quickly becoming a haven for wildlife. I began calling it my local patch in 2017 when I decided to see how many birds I could record between January 1st and December 31st. That year, I counted 112 different species simply by walking the gravel paths around the lake.
Before the event opened to the public, we took a preliminary walk to plan what we could show groups joining the tours. The lake was alive with Painted Ladies, a few dragonflies, plenty of Common Blue Damselflies, and some Banded Damselflies, things looked promising. Near the end of the walk, I spotted something unexpected. As we rounded a corner among the daisies, I noticed a large, coarse, hairy creature. It seemed too big and too grey for the rabbits usually seen around the area. Raising my binoculars, I was astonished to see a badger! What an incredible moment to watch this marvelous animal feeding peacefully among the daisies; I was thrilled.
Badger the 1st in 9 years of Patch Watching
Unfortunately, the badger was no longer in view when we led the first group of nine around South Lake. The group, like the others, was friendly and keen to see what we could find. Our first stop was on the causeway, where we spotted two Oystercatchers with two chicks, hopefully able to survive the many Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. As with the other groups, they were thrilled to see the Greylags and Egyptian Geese with their goslings, and some were especially pleased to spot the 20 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchids and Bird’s-foot Trefoil.
Our last walk was at 3 pm, the fourth circuit around South Lake, bringing the day’s total to about 4.8 to 5 miles walked. It was a lovely day spent with wonderful company, sharing wildlife sightings and birdsong. Songs from the Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, and Song Thrush were well received, as some had heard these calls before but didn’t know what they were. It was a joy to explain that the scratchy call from the reeds came from a small bird called the Reed Warbler, which had flown from Africa across part of the Sahara Desert to breed here. A fabulous day, and hopefully some went home with a greater appreciation of the birdlife and wildlife around Longham, and how important places like Longham Lakes are.
One of the better spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid
One of the very many Painted Lady's seen
One of hundreds of Common Blue Damselfly
Black-tailed Skimmer
other dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies seen
Emperor Dragonfly
Lesser Emperor-possible
Banded Damselflies
Green- veined White
Common Blue
Red Admiral
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