If you've visited Langford recently you can't have failed to notice that there is a lot of activity at the northern end of the site. This activity is focused on installing our new outfall sluice, a massive water control structure that will let water out of the reserve and fish into the reserve. Work on the sluice is now almost complete with just a few finishing touches and a bit of tidying up required. I'm claiming it to be the largest freshwater control structure on an RSPB reserve. The photos below show the reserve end of the structure (top) and the Trent end (bottom). To give a sense of scale the pipe is 2m in diameter. Water levels on the reserve are still low due to the restoration work happening in the Phase 3 area and this means that the Floating Bridge is still closed. Bird numbers are also lower than expected due to the water levels, but I saw a kingfisher, stone chats, a redshank, wigeons, goldeneye, golden plovers and snipe on site yesterday during a quick 30 minute focused wander.