We started off the new year here at Langford with the first volunteer Sunday of 2011 on 2nd January. And what better way to work off all that Christmas food than to spend a day clearing willow scrub around the silt lagoons!
We began the day by taking a walk around the public footpath, along the edge of the silt lagoons looking for the drake smew that had been spotted the previous day by volunteer John Ellis. He found the bird on silt lagoon 1, in a group with tufted duck and goldeneye. Male smews are truly stunning birds, with their bright white plumage, interspersed with jet black patterning and after our success with finding female smew on site a couple of weeks ago, it's great to now have a drake. The group eventually picked up the bird on silt lagoon 1 and managed to get several good views of it throughout the day!
After the excitement of the smew, next on the day's list was a juvenile marsh harrier that came into view over the viewing screen, flying towards the river. We watched the bird for five minutes as it made it's way westwards before disappearing out of sight over the river. It became clear after talking to our Conservation Officer, Carl Cornish, that this bird was different to the one he had seen on New Years Day - so we have two separate birds using the site.
One more surprise for the day as we made our way back to the office at dusk. It is always an exciting moment when someone shouts 'BITTERN' and as we approached silt lagoon 4 we all quickly turned our heads in the direction of the willow scrub as we heard Carl shout the magic word! And there it was, sitting in the top of a willow tree, not far from the edge of the track. We could still clearly see the bird, even in the dim light and what a beauty it is. The best view of a bittern I've ever had (and that's not the first time I've said that since working here!) and a perfect end to a successful day!