It seems that winter has finally arrived here at Langford as we were greeted on Monday morning with a covering of 3-4 inches of snow. And with much of the site’s water bodies frozen, it provides great opportunities to see what’s around.
Much of the reserve’s wildfowl was concentrated on silt lagoons 4 and 5 and Phase 2, with around 300 teal, 100 pochard, 100 tufted duck, 50 mallard, 30 gadwall, 30 wigeon and 4 goldeneye making best use of any unfrozen areas. A total of 6 little grebes were on Phases 2 and 3 and a stunning looking shelduck brightened up a dull, foggy morning on silt lagoon 5.
And I even managed to bag myself a ‘Langford tick’ with a sighting of a new duck species and not just one either….10 goosanders flew over Phase 2 and silt lagoon 6 mid-afternoon heading east.
Waders were prominent yesterday too as 3 snipe flew over Phase 2, a green sandpiper was feeding along the water’s edge on Phase 3 and a dunlin flew into Phase 3 calling away – the second time I have seen this bird in the last week and quite an unusual sighting for Langford at this time of year as we normally see dunlin in May.
And my second ‘Langford lifer’ of the day….a jack snipe that flew into the corner of Phase 2. Jack snipe winter at Langford every year, but are very hard to spot. Look out for a small snipe, with a very short bill and prominent creamy head markings and cream coloured stripes down the back.
Birds of prey also made an appearance with two buzzards over Phase 3, a female sparrowhawk hunting in the scrub around silt lagoon 4 and two peregrines over Phase 2.
The large flock of passerines by the feeding station was enjoying the food on offer with greenfinches, chaffinches, bullfinches, goldfinches, great and blue tits, reed buntings and up to 30 tree sparrows present.
Also on site was a little egret on the high level water carrier, 14 skylarks feeding on Phase 2 and a Cetti’s warbler singing from the middle of Phase 2. Mammal wise, we have been enjoying watching our regular 2 roe deer feeding around the edge of Phase 2, I was lucky enough to spot a weasel running down the public footpath in front of me last week, a fox ran down the bank into Phase 3 and there are good numbers of brown hares on Phase 3.