Myself and volunteer Sarah Bird were out on site bright and early this morning for the weekly breeding bird survey. And what a lovely morning it was, with the sun shining, clear skies and not a breath of wind – somewhat of a nice change from the torrential rain we have been experiencing in the last couple of weeks!
April and May are my favourite months of the year, I love listening and looking out for new migrants moving in and this week has been pretty productive. Yesterday I was keen to get out and catch up with cuckoo and lesser whitethroat, which had been spotted over the weekend. And I wasn’t disappointed, as both showed well along the public footpath by the silt lagoons, present again this morning for the survey.
On the western boundary of the reserve this morning, I was then greeted with my first common whitethroats of 2012, singing characteristically from the tops of hawthorn bushes on the reserve boundary. Three singing males were accompanied by four singing sedge warblers along a stretch of scrub no more than 100m long.
And after the sedge warbler impersonating a reed warbler last week, I have now heard real reed warblers(!) singing away on silt lagoons 2, 4 and 6 this morning
Total numbers of migrant warblers counted this morning are 18 willow warblers, 6 sedge warblers, 6 blackcaps, 4 reed warblers, 3 common whitethroats, 2 lesser whitethroats and 2 chiffchaffs. Other notable records include 2 Cetti’s warblers, 1 cuckoo and a ‘yaffling’ green woodpecker in the Phase 1 scrub – a bird I haven’t seen or heard at Langford since last summer.
Insect wise, it's been pretty quiet in this bad weather lately, but when the sun does come out, look out for St. Marks flies, or Bibio marci, to give them their scientific name. They are quite a large fly at about 15-20mm long, are black in colour and fly characteristically with thier legs dangling below their bodies. They get their name from their habit of first appearing on St. Mark's Day - 25th April - however they were five days early this year, first appearing last Friday on the 20th!