There is more good news on the bittern front here at Langford, with another two sightings of the bird in the last week. Both recent sightings have been in the same place, the bird again flying from the reed fringe to the left of the dipping platform. Please keep your eyes on the reed fringe as the bird seems to do the flight from here to the silt lagoon on a fairly regular basis.
A marsh harrier was seen yesterday by volunteer Chris Stothard over the area to the south of the visitor trails – viewable from the southern edge of the Cromwell Trail. This is the first marsh harrier sighting on site in a few months and hopefully the bird will stick around for a week or two – they usually do when they turn up.
Another report of tree sparrow from the visitor trails at the weekend is encouraging. Please keep an eye and ear open for these and let us know of any sightings.
Clouded yellows, painted lady’s and purple hairstreaks continue to show well and there are a few more migrant hawkers on the wing now. A brown argus on my butterfly transect this afternoon (5th August) was my first of the year. I was pleased to see Anthocomus rufus on the entrance gate behind the Beach Hut yesterday. This beetle, a member of the Malachiidae is only small, but is bright red and black and although fairly common, is a reedbed specialist.
And finally, a curious sighting from yesterday morning….
A roe deer making it’s way across Phase 1 wasn’t running along the banks as they normally do, but was swimming across deep open water! I have seen roe deer and indeed many other mammals swim over small channels before, but have never seen one actually swimming some distance over a large open water body. The animal was then seen in the scrub just two minutes later and then seen again swimming across the same area of water in the afternoon by Beach Hut volunteer Chris Stothard. Perhaps the animal was trying to cool down, or rid itself of parasites? Any other theories?