It was t-shirt weather yesterday as warden Paul and I took the boat down onto Phase 2 to launch the new fish shelters made by the Sunday volunteer team in February. Nine large wood and chicken wire cages filled with willow and sycamore brash make ideal little habitats for our vitally important fish population. After a good afternoon’s work, all the shelters were sunk into the developing reedbed. It’s always good fun getting out on the boat and it certainly gives a totally different perspective of the site as we are so used to seeing it from the land!
The monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) was conducted on Sunday by volunteers John Ellis, Julie Straw and Linda Lowndes and myself. This involves counting all water birds across the whole site. We counted 23 species in total, including the first ringed plover of the year, 3 little egrets and a lovely male goldeneye. But sometimes the highlight of the day isn’t a waterbird at all….John and Julie managed to spot not one, but two Langford rarities! And what are these rarities you ask? A collared dove and a coal tit! Common in your garden maybe, but not so common here at Langford!
Other birding highlights of the past week include –
Tues 8th March
1 merlin over the silt lagoons
3 little egrets on Phase 2
3 shelduck on Phase 1
Weds 9th March
1 green sandpiper on Phase 3
14 pied wagtails on Phase 2
1 peregrine on Phase 3
2 oystercatchers on Phase 2
Water rail calling in Phase 1
Mon 14th March
2 buzzard over the public footpath
Pair of shelduck on lagoon 5
Great spotted and green woodpeckers on the public footpath and Phase 1 scrub
1 redshank on Phase 2
And despite the good weather, I still haven’t seen a butterfly on site! But I am pleased to report we have the first cowslip flowering by silt lagoon 6.