A week on since the worst of the flooding here at Langford and the waters have started to recede a little. Having come down around 24 inches since it’s highest point, the levels now seem to have come to a stand still and haven’t dropped much since the weekend. It is now a case of waiting for the rest of the water to recede over time – possibly a long time!
Despite the flooded reserve, we have been keeping busy making sure our bird feeders are topped up in this cold weather, checking up on our floating bridge (it is still floating!) and with visits up to our other site at RSPB Beckingham Marshes near Gainsborough. Beckingham Marshes is a newly opened wet grassland site which holds breeding waders such as lapwings, winter wildfowl and thrushes and a colony of tree sparrows.
However, the floods have been good for something – wildlife sightings (as they say - every cloud has a silver lining), with some scarce bird species recorded in the last week or so. A 1st winter little gull dropped in briefly on Tuesday morning and similarly, 2 female common scoter were present on Phase 3 on Thursday morning only. And completing the trio of good birds, a male goosander was on Phase 3 on Sunday afternoon, just in time to be admired by our volunteer work party.
I was surprised to see a bittern on top of a bund in some long vegetation on Tuesday afternoon last week, a strange place for a bittern. I suspect the bird was perhaps feeding on small mammals moving away from the rising water. Last Friday, we had a second fly-over great white egret, more than likely the same one as a few weeks ago, again going north over the reserve.
And speaking of mammals, numerous voles, mice and shrews were visible at the beginning of last week moving to higher ground, brown hares have become more frequent around our container area on dry ground and we were treated to a fantastic view of a roe deer going south over a flooded Slough Dyke last Thursday.
IMPORTANT. Please be aware that the area around Langford is still very dangerous due to continued flooding. Please always follow Environment Agency guidelines and stay away from flooded areas. The public footpath along our eastern boundary between Cottage Lane and Westfield Lane is also still closed due to re-surfacing works.