It was volunteer Sunday again yesterday and we had a large turnout of 14 people arriving bright and early for a day’s work on site. Several different activities were on offer this month including footpath maintenance on the eastern boundary public footpath, finishing off our raised path at the western end of the boardwalk, polytunnel maintenance, giving our containers and storage areas a spring clean, litterpicking and…

It really felt like spring was here in the last couple of days, with temperatures in the high teens and calm conditions. The good weather also brought out plenty of insects – always a welcome sight after a long, cold winter!

A short walk down the woodland edge provided most of the interest, with the first small white butterfly of the year near the car park. This follows the first orange-tip of the year on Phase…

Tree sparrows are a farmland bird species, typical of lowland arable and mixed farming areas. Sadly, they have undergone one of the largest declines of any farmland bird species - a 95% decrease in population between 1970 and 1998 (BTO). Smaller than the more familiar house sparrow, they can be identified by their wholly chestnut coloured forehead, crown and nape and distinctive black cheek spot. The sexes are alike.

It’s that time of year again, birds are returning to breeding areas – both to, from and through the UK and coupled with rising temperatures, insects emerging and plants growing, it is my favourite time of year (apart from autumn migration of course!).

In the last week we have had some good movement of birds on site including an influx of chiffchaffs – there are now 5-6 birds singing on site, with no sign…

Many thanks to volunteers Rob Werran, Nick Shimwell and Sarah Burhouse for assisting with our BBS and WeBS count last Wednesday – in the somewhat unsuitable conditions of wind and cold temperatures! Here are the WeBS results….

235 tufted duck

64 teal

51 mallard

23 gadwall

16 wigeon

11 pochard

10 shoveler

4 goldeneye

6 mute swan

2 whooper swan

37 canada goose

8 greylag goose

4 shelduck

165 c…

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…

The weather has been glorious in the last couple of days, after a rather cold and damp volunteer Sunday. So, we have been making the most of it and here are the latest sightings….

Redhead smew still on silt lagoon 7. It was also on Phase 1 yesterday afternoon, so do look out for it from the viewing screen. One also flew onto Phase 2 from Phase 3 this afternoon – another bird, or the same one moving around?…

Volunteer Sunday was upon us once again yesterday and we were joined bright and early by 12 people eager to get stuck into some sand martin bank repairs, bench installation and polytunnel work. The weather wasn’t quite as kind to us as it was in February, but despite the threat of heavy rain, we remained warm and dry – mostly!

After last breeding season and a winter’s worth of bad weather, the sand martin…

Those of you that have been helping us apply a non-slip suface to our bridge and boardwalk, will be pleased to know that it's now finished (though not as pleased as Jenny).

Some of the 90-plus Mute Swans that have been on site recently, performed a celebratory fly-past as we walked off it yesterday - who needs the Red Arrows!

Many thanks to those of you that have spent any time on what has been a mammoth task.

Regular readers of our blog will recall my post detailing our Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) project on sand martins earlier this year – if not, please see here…. http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/langfordlowfields/b/langfordlowfields-blog/archive/2013/07/29/sand-martin-study.aspx

In total we ringed 269 birds over the course of four evening ringing sessions in July and August. Soon after…

It has been feeling quite spring like in the last week, in between the rain and wind, with temperatures hitting 12C, the sun shining and the wildlife showing signs of the forthcoming breeding season.

On Wednesday last week I recorded 10 species of birds singing, including my first singing reed bunting and yellowhammer of 2014. Blue and great tits were in full voice, as were greenfinch, chaffinch, robin, wren, dunnoc…

The monthly WeBS count was conducted on Thursday last week, on a windy but sunny and warm morning. Paul, Stuart, Rob, Nick, Sarah and I split into two teams to cover the site, results as follows….

156 teal

126 tufted duck

106 wigeon

71 shoveler – still excellent numbers of this species

44 mallard

30 gadwall

10 goldeneye

3 pintail

1 pochard

168 coot

9 mute swan

4 shelduck

3 greylag goose

1 grey…

After the presence of a pair of smew on Thursday 30^th January, a redhead appeared on silt lagoon 7 on Wednesday last week and stayed at least until Friday. Smew are less than annual at Langford, with no reports last winter and the current redhead only being about the 8^th-9^th record for the site.

They are without doubt stunning little birds. The males are bright white with black markings, whilst the females live up to…

We had yet another massive effort by our Sunday volunteers yesterday, who turned up in good numbers for a day of installing chicken wire on our boardwalk. We are doing this to provide some extra grip when walking on the boardwalk and bridge, especially in wet or cold weather and it is a huge job, with approximately 200 metres of wire to install!

However, we are doing exceptionally well with this and the group yesterday…

Apologies for the lack of reserve news recently - the blog site has been down for maintenance, but we are back to busness as usual now.

Recent highlights in the last week include -

Cetti's warbler singing on silt lagoon 6 and calling from silt lagoon 4. This may suggest that there are two back on site, which would be excellent news.

3 curlew over Phases 1 and 2 on Monday - the birds circled over Phase 3 and then…

….I love them, they are perhaps my favourite duck and definitely one of the joys of winter. Here at Langford, we can get up to 10 birds wintering on site at any one time, present from November through to February.

Males are stunning creatures, with their black and white plumage and iridescent green heads and whilst females are duller as in most ducks, they are nevertheless, great to look at, with their dark chestnut…

Despite the starlings having moved on, I was still joined by 15 people for yesterday's guided walk around Langford Lowfields.

The weather was about as good as it gets for January and we saw many of the species listed in Jenny's blog about today's WeBS survey. 

As most of the visitors hadn't been to Langford before, I decided to give them a grand tour of the site and some of its relatively new infrastructure…

Paul, Stuart and I completed the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) this morning, on a beautiful clear and calm winter’s day – it was even warm in the sun from mid-morning, after a frosty start! Overall numbers of wildfowl are still low, but selected species seem to be more numerous than previous winters. Here are this morning’s results….

202 tufted duck

118 wigeon – good number for Langfor…

It seems the presence of 800 birds last week was just a one off as there have been no further murmurations on site since then.

For anyone booked on this Sunday’s Starling Spectacular walk – the walk is still going ahead, however unfortunately it looks like there will be no starlings! There should still be plenty to enjoy though – please see previous recent blogs for details of what has been around on site…

Mild weather continues here at Langford and consequently, lower numbers of wildfowl. However, we can’t complain as there have been some nice reserve highlights from the past few days – and of course, at least it isn’t too cold for us outdoor workers! Here is the best of the week so far….

3 whooper swans roosting on either silt lagoon 5 or 6 (the last two on the left as you walk northwards along…

It was a disappointment last month when the starling murmuration disappeared after building to 10,000 birds in mid-December. We wondered whether that would be it for the winter, or if they would return before they disperse off for the breeding season.

Strong winds over the last three weeks have no doubt made it difficult for birds to gather and roost in the reedbeds, however tonight – the first still evening in a while…

Yesterday was the first volunteer Sunday of 2014 and 9 people arrived bright and early on a lovely, clear sunny day for some scrub clearance around silt lagoon 6.

Silt lagoon 6 is temporarily the largest continuous expanse of reed we have on site and will remain so for some time yet, whilst Phase 2 develops more reed cover. Therefore, it is currently one of the best places to see various species including bittern (very…

Happy New Year! It’s back to business as usual now after the Christmas holidays, so look out for regular blogs each week once again.

I had a good walk around site this morning, giving me a chance to see what’s around and what the reserve is looking like. Water levels are great at the moment, in fact higher than I’ve ever seen them on Phases 1 and 2 and the old silt lagoon 7 – apart from in last year’s floods of…

Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our blog readers. Thank you for your interest in Langford and for everyone who has visited, we hope you are enjoying the new car park and information facilities that we have put in place in the last few months.

We also hope to welcome you all onto site soon and are working hard to get the northern end of the reserve open as soon as we can - hopefully by…

It was only two weeks ago that I counted around 9000 starlings in the roost - most of the birds going into silt lagoon 6, with only a handful utilising reed at the top end of Phase 1 (where they started back in October). I was hopeful after this roost that numbers were starting to build - I was starting to wonder if we would reach the record of 40000 from last winter.

However this week there seems to have been a major reduction…