Despite the relatively quiet winter period for bird sightings, we continue to pull in some good stuff in the last week. Peregrine and barn owl are still regular across the site, with a chance of marsh harrier and merlin always worth bearing in mind. The wintering stonechats are showing well and can be seen from anywhere on the visitor trails, with at least two pairs present on site and possible a third. 2 dunlin were on Phase 1 at the weekend, seen by our Conservation Officer, Carl Cornish and Carl also had a bittern, again in reed north of the boardwalk. The bird was seen in flight going into roost late afternoon.
It is always pleasing at this time of year to see the return of shelduck to Langford. Interestingly, most UK shelduck migrate to areas around Helgoland off the German coast to complete their annual moult, before returning to the UK over winter. Our shelduck move off site after the main breeding season period in July, with potentially two waves of birds moving out of the UK - first the non-breeders, followed by breeders slightly later. They then return over winter and can be seen back at Langford anytime throughout December and January.
Disappointingly, shelduck haven't bred on site since 2010, but each year they continue to return and I remain hopeful for successful breeding on site again in the future.
Shelduck - lovely birds, back on site fresh from their moult. Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)