It's official!

After many years of hard work by so many people, from many different organisations and months of planning the event itself, our big day finally arrived last Thursday, 5^th June….the official opening of RSPB Langford Lowfields!

A day of heavy rain on Wednesday got us all rather worried, however the weather forecast was looking good, if a little breezy and sure enough, it was looking OK as people began to arrive at 11.00. The day then began with a short introduction by our Site Manager, Michael Copleston in the visitor’s car park, providing a great opportunity to show people some of the new visitor facilities.

The group, totaling almost 60 people – a brilliant turnout, then made their way up to the Beach Hut area, a pleasant walk up the public footpath and onto site, accompanied by singing warblers and passing butterflies and damselflies.

Our new pond dipping platform was then used as a stage for a series of speeches by RSPB staff members, Steve Holliday and Ann Kiceluk and Neil Beards from Lafarge Tarmac, followed by Michael once again, with his famous reedbed creation demonstration using a tray of sand and a tray full of reed seedlings!

Lunch followed and we were treated to a excellent buffet – thanks to Sandy for this and an exhibition of stunning artwork by volunteer and local wildlife artist Mike Warren.

The afternoon then brought us some sunshine for guided walks around the new visitor trails and sand martin bank. It's such a pleasure to show people all the work that has gone into Langford over the last few years, including the floating bridge, which always provides a bit of excitement(!) and the sand martin bank – one of the highlights for my group was standing watching the swarm of birds going in and out of their nest holes feeding young.

At the conclusion of the walks, the day was drawn to a close.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and once again, to everyone who has contributed to the success of Langford and it’s opening.