April volunteer Sunday here at Langford is always traditionally avocet and osprey day - that is for a few years, it always seemed to produce the first avocets of the season and a flyover osprey. High hopes were therefore had for yesterday as everyone gathered for a days reed seeding in the polytunnel.
With several propagation trays to fill with compost and sow with seeds, the group got to work on a warm, but overcast morning. It is always good to get the first batch of reed seeds sown early on in the season - this batch should be ready for planting out by mid-summer and will go to supplement the existing reed establishment here at Langford, with some being sold onto other reedbed creation or restoration projects throughout the country. Plugs overwintered from last year are already starting to grow well and look really healthy, as does the large batch of tadpoles living in one of the propagation bays! As the day wore on, the sun eventually showed itself, much to everyone's delight and this produced a small tortoiseshell and my first brimstone butterfly of the year. Still only the third and fourth butterflies I've seen all season and two very welcome sightings indeed!
Little ringed plover, ruff, barn owl and sand martin were among the bird highlights of the day, with an impressive 9 water rails recorded by John and Julie on their early morning survey. This is the highest number in a few years and is an encouraging indication that our population is growing again.
And as for the avocet and osprey day....it did indeed produce my first avocets of the year, with 2 birds on Phase 2 late morning (although not Langford's first for the year), but unfortunately no flyover osprey - maybe next week....
Thanks to all for another great day.
Avocet. Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)