We have undeniably had one of the best springs for waders on site in recent years, after a string of good sightings including little stint, spotted redshank, ruff and the star of the show - our red-necked phalarope. However, it now looks like the autumn may be off to a good start as well, with a black-tailed bonanza on site this week.

On Tuesday, I was treated to a fabulous view of 19 black-tailed godwits down on Phase…

Well thanks to our fabulous Thursday volunteer crew, you can now have a spot of lunch, or breakfast, or tea in the viewing screen on our brand new picnic bench installed today. Enjoy!

Ever fancied wardening your own reserve? Well, now is you chance....we are currently looking for Volunteer Wardens for our Beckingham Marshes site, near Gainsborough. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Beckingham, it is managed by us based here at Langford and is on the Nottinghamshire side of the Trent opposite Gainsborough and just east of the village of Beckingham. It is a wet grassland site - quite different to Langford…

It's been great in the last couple of weeks or so to see the first juvenile birds around the site, after such a slow start to the spring I certainly think it's rather late to be seeing the first young of some species. So far the list includes robin, song thrush, blackcap, blue, great, long-tailed and willow tit (see last week's post!), treecreeper, mallard, coot, moorhen, shelduck (first confirmed on site…

....no, not the common Geometrid moth that one may find in a July moth trap, but a willow beauty of a different kind!

On Tuesday morning this week, we were overjoyed to find a juvenile willow tit in scrub on the northern edge of silt lagoon 6 - this is the willow scrub that you can see on the lagoon edge from the gate behind the Beach Hut. This is significant for several reasons, firstly because it is only the third…

The monthly WeBS count has come around again and this month was conducted by volunteer Rob Werran. Here are Rob's results for June....

83 mallard

26 tufted duck

26 gadwall

9 pochard

2 shoveler

1 teal

25 mute swan

56 graylag goose

23 Canada goose

5 shelduck

11 great crested grebe

4 little egret

2 grey heron

109 coot

5 moorhen

16 lapwing

6 avocet

4 oystercatcher

4 little ringed plover

1 ringed p…

We had a day of excitement on site on Wednesday this week, with the presence of Langford's best bird in a long time....a stunning male red-necked phalarope, which spent most of the day delighting staff, volunteers and visitors on Phase 1.

The bird was first discovered by volunteer Rob Werran at 21.40 on Tuesday evening, just as it was getting dark. Naturally, I hurried up to the reserve first thing on Wednesday morning…

Last month I was pleased to welcome onto site PWC for a corporate work day, on what was a glorious warm, sunny Friday. 15 people from the firm joined us for a day of planting reed out on the old silt lagoon 7 and seedling in the polytunnel.

We grow up to around 50000 reed seedlings a year in our polytunnel and the first step of propagation is sowing the seed gathered earlier in the year from our very own stock out on…

Insects are truly amazing - but then again I would say that, I'm an entomology geek! Lepidoptera (buttterflies and moths) are among my favourite groups and yesterday on Phase 2, volunteers Rob Werran, Nick Shimwell and I were treated to a fabulous view of a burnet moth caterpillar in the process of spinning a cocoon.

Lepidoptera have a four stage lifecycle - egg, larva, pupa, imago (adult), in common with other insect…

I managed a very late WeBS count on Tuesday afternoon and after my week away, took the opportunity to go around and have a look at what birds were on site. There is still the possibility of the odd migrant around at this time of year, in addition to the first young on site. Here are Tuesday's results....

95 mallard

29 tufted duck

15 gadwall

9 pochard

1 shoveler

1 teal

20 mute swan - birds sitting, but no cygnets…

I've been away on holiday in Scotland for a week and came back to a multitude of new species out for the year on my walk around site yesterday. It's always surprising when you come back after a break at this time of year - the most noticeable thing is the height of the new reed growth, it looks a foot taller than before I left and is such a lush green colour. Trees looked to have greened up, the woodland canopy has closed…

This is just a very quick blog about sand martins, because I love them and am very relieved to have them back on site! My worrying was justified until yesterday, as there was no activity in our sand martin bank at all - after the previous three years of being very successful. We had noticed reduced numbers of birds on site, leading us to believe that they were maybe just a little late, however reports of birds excavating…

Volunteer Sunday was upon us once again this weekend and May is always a lovely time of year to get out and enjoy the site. This month we usually do a bit of work in the morning and then take the afternoon to have a walk around, see what's about and enjoy the fruits of the past year's labours!

Despite the terrible weather forecast and torrential downpour, 9 people arrived bright and early for a morning of site…

It was WeBS time again this week and volunteers Stuart and Roger kindly conducted the survey this month. It's getting quieter on the wildfowl front at this time of year, but the presence of breeding waders (and of course the chance of something good turning up!) more than makes up for that. here are this month's results....

It's been another week of avian arrivals and entomological emergence this week with the good weather bringing stuff out.

Bird wise, we have been treated to the first cuckoos singing on site, a brilliant grasshopper warbler singing persistently from the silt lagoon behind the Beach Hut, the first 2 common terns south of the new viewing screen and whitethroat singing from the boundary hedgerows. The avocets are still…

Not a word we can use that often at Langford, but Conservation Officer, Carl Cornish certainly had one last Tuesday evening with the following recorded -

1 spotted redshank - glorious bird in full breeding plumage. This species is less than annual at Langford, so lovely to get one 'in the bag' for this year!

3 ruff - still on site.

2 avocet

1 dunlin

4 snipe

4 redshank

1 little ringed plover

1 ringed p…

Well, winter seems to have finally given way to spring (almost...it's a little chilly today!), but the past week has been glorious and has produced some great sightings - most welcome after such a slow start.

Wader-wise, we have had 5 ruff on site - almost unheard of for Langford. This is a species that usually turns up as singles in autumn and not always every year. We had a good year for them in 2014, with several…

April volunteer Sunday here at Langford is always traditionally avocet and osprey day - that is for a few years, it always seemed to produce the first avocets of the season and a flyover osprey. High hopes were therefore had for yesterday as everyone gathered for a days reed seeding in the polytunnel.

With several propagation trays to fill with compost and sow with seeds, the group got to work on a warm, but overcast…

Winter visitors linger on, whilst spring migrants are still slow coming are the main headlines from this week.

Goldeneye, wigeon, teal and pochard are still present on site and there are large numbers of fieldfare feeding on field east of the Cromwell trail. A merlin over the visitor trails last week was also great to see. The only spring migrants we have picked up so far are a handful of sand martins and up to 4 singing…

Well it still doesn't feel particularly spring like on site at the moment, with temperatures only hitting about 10C this week and that cold wind still making an appearance on some days. My insect sightings for the year are still looking decidedly poor, with no further butterfly records this week and a handful of queen bumblebees flying on the warmer, calmer days.

Much of my week has been spent working at our other…

After a relatively quiet winter on site, the reserve seemed to come alive yesterday, with some welcome sightings of species we haven't seen for a while, migrants coming in and a bittern bonanza!

First thing in the morning is arguably the best time for seeing and hearing birds and at Langford it certainly is one of the best times for bittern. An early morning vigil by Phase 2 - very early at 05.30 - was richly rewarded…

I have been eagerly awaiting signs of spring for a few weeks now - often from the middle of February onwards there is always the chance of a warm, sunny and calm day that brings out the odd queen bumblebee looking for a nesting site, or the first butterfly of the year. February too often brings the first chiffchaff song (23rd Feb last year) and a multitude of other bird species in song.

However, it wasn't until this…

It was WeBS weekend once again on Sunday and volunteer Rob Werran conducted this month's count. Here are the results....

137 tufted duck

100 wigeon - a good number for Langford

92 teal

47 mallard

10 pochard

7 gadwall

7 goldeneye

4 mute swan

12 Canada goose

4 greylag goose

3 shelduck

10 great crested grebe

1 little grebe

5 cormorant

2 grey heron

1 little egret

102 coot

4 moorhen

10 lapwing

1 oy…

Volunteer Sunday was upon us once again yesterday - March already! It was a glorious, if very blustery morning, but 9 people arrived for a spot of hedge planting and reed panicle collection.

The hedge on the north western boundary of the site was beginning to take shape and 50m were left to plant yesterday. With a team hard at work, the remaining 50m was completed easily. The very northern section of the hedgerow is…

It's that time of year again, when I start doing dawn vigils on site listening and looking for bittern activity and preparing for the coming season's Breeding Bird Survey. Despite the early starts, I love nothing more than getting out on site as the sky gets lighter, birds start singing and the sun rises.

On Monday last week, I was joined by our Midlands Region Project Manager, Ross Frazer and volunteer Stuart…