It was a disappointing start to the day for me, with a distinct lack of bittern activity on silt lagoon 6, but it soon picked up as I made my way around site to conduct my third breeding bird survey of the year….
On the public footpath near the woodland, I was delighted to record a coal tit singing. This is my first site record of singing coal tit – spring and summer records of this species at Langford are rare, with usually only 2-3 winter records per year.
Another scarce species at Langford is red kite, with an average of 1-2 records annually, one flew over Phase 2 and silt lagoon 6 heading eastwards late this morning. The last red kite records were in spring 2013, so this individual was a welcome sighting.
5 pintail on silt lagoon 6 and a siskin calling from the woodland were a good supporting cast, but the species of the day has to be Langford’s second ever site record of common crane. Following the record of 8 birds over silt lagoon 6 in February 2012, volunteer Graham Gamage phoned to report 3 birds flying eastwards over the southern end of the site at around 10.40 this morning. Fortunately, this just happens to be an area viewable from the office and we enjoyed good views of the birds drifting east from our very own office! Many thanks to Graham for an excellent find.
Makes me wonder what else is out there!?
Three common cranes - but not at Langford! Photo - Nick Upton (rspb-images.com)