December Wetland Bird Survey

The intrepid WeBS team were squelching around the reserve on Sunday, carrying out the monthly count of all the water-loving birds on site. The weather was horrendous, but I held them in my thoughts as I enjoyed a restful lie-in... The reserve is surveyed in 3 parts, by 3 sub-teams and then the results collated. Not always easy, due to the fact that birds can fly and move around the reserve, but the team are now experts at dealing with this... Here are the December counts:

The omnipotent great white egret is still making good use the site and in fact 4 were reported recently. Two short-eared owls were seen on Tuesday adding to the currently very impressive pantheon of birds at Langford. Marsh harrier, merlin and peregrine are being reported and we seem to have quite a few lesser redpoll flitting about at the moment, both in and around the Bunting seed field and feeding in the silver birch trees at the end of the Seasonal Trail. Normally we'd have closed the Seasonal Trail during November as things start wetting up and to decrease disturbance to the large flocks of wildfowl (we don't want to cause them to waste too much energy during the cold winter days)... However, it's still not that cold, the water levels are not too high yet (let's hope I'm not tempting fate!!) and with all the additional visitors enjoying Langford, it gives people a bit more space to spread out. Please do note though, that some sections of the trails are getting muddy and slippery, be prepared for this. Walking around in trainers isn't advised. 

Redpoll photos taken by WeBS aficionado Stuart Carlton