It's almost that time of year where winter meets spring and examples of both seasons wildlife can be seen on site. At least one redhead smew is still around, having been visible from the new viewing screen looking south on Tuesday afternoon - albeit very briefly! The birds are still very mobile, but spend some time at the screen and you may get lucky. Teal, wigeon, redwing in the woodland and passing flocks of chacking…

Just to let everyone know that this weekend, the farmers will be in moving sugar beet. There will be some delays for 10-15 minutes while the lorries load. Why not take the time to look out for the large finch flock feeding on scattered seed and on the wild bird seed crop whilst you are waiting. Do let us know if you see any brambling!

Apologies for any inconvenience.

I was lucky enough to see a small group of lesser…

This morning our volunteers Rob Werran, Nick Shimwell and Craig Brookes completed the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). Many thanks to the guys for doing this - here are their results -

501 teal

167 tufted duck

114 mallard

63 wigeon

26 pochard

12 gadwall

8 goldeneye

3 pintail

2 shoveler

2 smew - both redheads, they are mobile, but the best place to look for them is looking south from the new viewing screen…

Our sand martin bank in all it's glory, after it's winter maintenance work. It is now ready for the returning birds - although not quite yet, not sure they would appreciate the snow! The bank is now entering it's fourth breeding season and has been such a success in previous years, we have high hopes for another successful season in 2015.

The second volunteer Sunday of 2015 took place yesterday, with 12 people arriving to a sunny, but very blustery Langford for a day of hedge planting.

We have been lucky enough to secure funding recently for just over 450 metres of hedgerow, to be planted on the north-western boundary of the site. This follows most of the western boundary of the North and Cromwell Trails and when grown on, it will provide a corridor from…

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…

I completed the monthly WeBS this morning with volunteer Rob Werran. It was a glorious sunny, calm day, if a little chilly, but the site looks fabulous on a lovely winter's day like this. Here are this morning's results....

340 teal

145 tufted duck

120 mallard

68 wigeon

26 gadwall

18 pochard

9 goldeneye

7 shoveler

4 pintail

8 mute swan

2 graylag goose

1 Canada goose

164 coot

13 moorhen

1 water r…

It seems that at least one of our bitterns has taken up residence in reed just north of the boardwalk recently - with two sightings of a bird up there in the last week. Most recently, Beach Hut volunteer Mel Thorne saw the bird as it flew across the channel from one area of reed to another on Friday (16th) morning. This is great news as it increases visitor's chances if seeing the bird - you still have to be in the right…

I remember back in the winter of 2010-11, seeing my first smew at Langford – two redheads on the high level water carrier. On returning to the office, I was met with great excitement as I was informed that they were only the second record for the site since recording began in 1989.

Now however, smew seem to be annual on site, with individuals reliably turning up each winter – much to our delight! So I was very pleased…

Happy New Year to everyone – best wishes and good birding for 2015!

This Sunday 4^th January was our first volunteer day of the year and was attended by 8 people keen to get stuck into some scrub management. It was the coldest morning of the winter so far, with the car reading -4C when I arrived, but it was a gorgeous day, with sun shining and calm conditions.

The scrub management programme for this winter is going…

I've been on site a few times over the Christmas period and with plenty of visitors, there have been some great records over the last week or so....

A marsh harrier was over the northern end of the visitor trails yesterday (Monday), along with a merlin on Phase 2 and stonechat from the visitor trails.

2 bitterns were on Phase 2 today, showing well out on ice. Much of the northern end of Phase 1 is frozen at the…

Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our blog readers. I will hope to update the blog over the holiday period, so keep an eye open for sightings news.

In the last week we have had both bittern and marsh harrier sightings on site - the bittern was on Phase 2 this morning and a female marsh harrier flew north over the silt lagoons and Phase 1 yesterday morning. There are at least three pairs…

The December WeBS count was conducted by myself and volunteer Stuart Carlton last Thursday. Strong winds certainly don’t make it easy with birds hunkering down in long vegetation and scopes shaking, but we went for it and the results are as follows –

181 teal

160 tufted duck

76 mallard

30 wigeon

17 gadwall

8 shoveler

7 goldeneye

6 pochard

1 pintail

11 mute swan

2 greylag goose

1 canada goose

Just a quick starling update....I was pleased to see a small (very small!) murmuration back on site this evening, with around 500 birds going into reed at the western end of the boardwalk. It's not quite the 25,000 we had back in November, but it's a start!

With some colder weather on the Continent recently, it is possible that we may get an influx of birds over the next few days. It's worth keeping an eye open…

One of the joys of winter here at Langford is the possibility of coming across two of the UK’s species of sawbill - the goosander and smew. Known as sawbills because of their serrated bill edges, they are diving ducks, specialising in eating fish.

Smew, or Mergellus albellus to be scientific is the smaller of the two species at around 40cm in length. They are almost annual at Langford and have been seen from December…

It is with great pleasure that we can now finally open our new viewing screen on the Cromwell Trail, overlooking Phases 1 and 2! The new screen is on a raised point at the southern end of the Cromwell Trail, the elevated position meaning excellent views can be had over much of the developing reedbed - perfect for watching the range of wildlife that calls Langford it's home.

The screen was designed by our expert carpenter…

Just a quick update for this week, with the exciting news of a tree sparrow seen using our feeding station by the viewing screen on the public footpath (thanks to Beach Hut volunteer Dave Roberts for this)! This is the first time the species has been seen using the feeding station for nearly 2 years. With numerous individuals at the wild bird seed crop opposite the car park and a potential colony now also on Phase 1,…

For everyone who doesn't follow us on Twitter or Facebook....

Unfortunately, it still isn't good news on the starling front! The birds seems to have completely deserted us now, with only a handful flying over the site each evening and apparently not roosting on site at all. The reason for this is completely unknown and mimics what they did last year in the middle of December after good numbers had built up earlier…

Apologies for a rather delayed report on our November Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) - a busy schedule and a few days away in London are to blame! However, we should be back on track now, so here are the results of the latest WeBS count, conducted by volunteer Stuart Carlton on Thursday 13th November -

185 tufted duck

60 mallard

50 teal

25 gadwall

25 shoveler

5 pochard

2 goldeneye

16 mute swan

3 graylag goose

1…

For all our blog readers who don't follow our Twitter account - please take a look at this blog and short video by Jamie Wardley of Sand In Your Eye, detailing his recent visit to our sand martin bank. Jamie and his team built the bank for us back in 2012 (thanks guys!) and it has been a huge success ever since. You can find his website with the blog and video here....  http://www.sandsculptureice.co.uk/blog/2014/sand…

Just to add to Jenny's blog posting last night, I thought I'd draw your attention to the blog of Beach Hut volunteer Dave Roberts, on the Lincsbirders website.

Dave's put some great images of the roost and sunset on there and his blogs always make for a good read.

http://www.lincsbirders.org/2014/11/04/starlings/

News just in from Beach Hut volunteer Dave Roberts of 15,000 starlings in the roost tonight! This is already higher than our peak count from last winter and it's only the beginning of November. It's well worth coming to see this spectacle - arrive from about 15.30 and watch from the southern edge of the Cromwell Trail to the south over Phase 2. Do bear in mind though they do sometimes change their roost location, so may…

....scrub management season starts of course! And that was one of the tasks for our monthly Sunday volunteers last weekend, along with working on our soon to be opened brand new viewing screen, overlooking the silt lagoon 7 and Phase 2 reedbeds.

We manage scrub to increase it's biodiversity value. Much of our scrub, being a few years old now has matured to a point where it is very tall and dense. This means reduced…

Langford's winter starling roost is building in size and we now estimate there to be at least 7000 birds roosting at night.

After yesterday's volunteer work party, the volunteers were treated to some breathtaking aerobatics against a dramatic sunset.

If you've never seen starlings 'murmurating' before, then now's the time.  They start to gather just before dusk and are currently roosting in the…

It's not every nature reserve that's lucky enough to have a renowned wildlife artist produce a book charting its development.  Well we're very lucky, because earlier this year, Mike Warren released his second Langford Lowfields book, entitled 'Taking Flight' at the Birdfair.

An exhibition of Mike's work is being held over the weekend of 15th and 16th November (Further details below) and his books and…