Water levels on the reserve have dropped by about a metre over the past week, with the River Trent finally allowing us to release water through the big outfall sluice. Parts of the trails are still underwater though and so they remain closed and in fact will remain closed until they've had a bit of time to dry out. I'm hoping this will happen before Christmas, but it all depends on the weather and how helpful the river wants to be/
With the flood waters receding, we are currently in a bit of a birdy transition period, with the record breaking wildfowl numbers having departed and the small birds that presumably escaped as the water came up, having not returned yet. Reed buntings, noisy Cetti's warblers and wrens, normally common features of Langford's reedbed are noticeably absent. These flood events have winners and losers at Langford, the ducks loved it, but on the flip-side it has to-date prevented us carrying out our winter reed cutting and willow removal, it has also meant the reedbed hasn't been ideal for bearded tits and bitterns. Looking ahead at predicted sea level rise by 2050, it looks likely that such flooding events will only become more common (red dot on map below is Langford). Map screenshotted from https://coastal.climatecentral.org/
Despite being in this transition period, there is still lots of wildlife about, with a few pintail and goldeneye mixing in with the commoner winter duck species. Treecreepers and mistle thrush are in the woodland, linnets and goldfinches in the seed crop area next to the car park, long-tailed tits and bullfinches alongside the public footpath up to the Beach Hut, redwings and fieldfares in the thorny berry-laden scrub, roe deer sneaking about though the longer grass, an almost daily marsh harrier (we saw it on the guided walk on Sarturday), snipe leaping up out of the reeds and barn owls hunting across the site in the evenings.
Photos below, long-tailed tit and linnets ©Stuart Carlton Twitter: @StuartCarlton48