First of all, apologies for the lack of blogs in the last two weeks, we have had technical problems! However, all sorted now, so normal service is resumed!

Today’s focus is the clouded yellow, or Colias croceus to be scientific. Clouded yellows are beautiful butterflies and not a species we see very often here at Langford. The only recent records on site have been one in 2009 and an unprecedented 8 so far in 2013…

As we arrived here at Langford on Saturday evening in strong wind and heavy rain, we were somewhat worried about how our bat and moth night was going to pan out! As you may have guessed, this is definitely not the best of conditions in which to look for our nocturnal wildlife! Dark skies and rain continued as our guests arrived at 7.30, however our attending bat experts Derek and Phil provided the group with an excellent…

The good weather in the last few weeks has really got the insects moving and what a welcome relief that is from earlier in the year! Birds are also moving onto site, with lapwing numbers soaring, waders moving through and some late records of migrants and breeders. Here are this afternoon's sightings.... First migrants hawkers of 2013, coronet moth roosting on Phase 1, silver Y's feeding on Phase 1, best butterfly…

Since their discovery at Langford in 2010 and 2011 respectively, we have always been on the look out for purple and white-letter hairstreaks on site around the woodland. Both species are small butterflies and often go un-noticed as they flit around the canopy – rarely landing within binocular view!

Today I spent a bit of time in and around the woodland looking for these charming little creatures and was delighted…

A while ago I blogged about our tree sparrow ringing project that we have been running up on Phase 1 since December 2012. In addition to this we have now started a new project, focusing on our sand martin colony on Phase 2. The colony has been a real success story here at Langford. Within a couple of weeks of the bank being built in March 2012, the birds had moved in with around 140 holes excavated throughout the breeding…

There have been a few nice birds on site in the last week or so, evidence of the first autumn movements through the reserve and sign that the summer lull may be drawing to a close. My mid-summer ‘bird lull’ is usually filled with insects and other invertebrates, but this year, has been frustratingly reduced with numbers of butterflies only just building now – although still lower than they should be, poor numbers of dragonflies…

I completed the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) this morning, the first of the 2013-14 season and as I walked around site in nearly 30C and blazing sunshine, I thought of the contrast between today and December 2012’s WeBS, when the site was full to the brim with flood water and visibility was poor due to frequent blizzards! Never happy with the weather!

Today’s results are as follows….

68 mal…

In the latest in the 'love for....' series, I am going to look at lacewings and allied insects - a much over-looked group of species, but nevertheless still fascinating and beautiful creatures!

Lacewings comprise the insect Order Neuroptera, of which there are around 76 species in the UK, including 1 species of antlion. You may be familiar with the commoner species of green lacewing, but there are in fact several…

Last weekend was the monthly volunteer Sunday work party once again and this month we were joined by 6 enthusiastic folk ready for a day on the reserve. And what a beautiful day it was too, hot and sunhny, in fact it was getting too hot by the end of the day - we are never happy with the weather are we!

The first task on the agenda was ragwort pulling. this is an annual task here at Langford and in some years is a lot…

Two weeks ago I declared my love for longhorn beetles - well today I thought I'd share a bit more love for another of my favourite beetle Families, the Coccinellidae, better known as ladybirds. 53 species of ladybird have been recorded in the UK (Duff, 2012) and in fact many of these don't look at all like ladybirds.

Many people will be familiar with the common and widespread 7-spot ladybird, or Coccinella se…

The Nottingham RSPB Local Members Group made their annual visit to Langford Lowfields last Wednesday evening.  Twenty-five members made the trip and were pleased to see how the site has developed since their visit last year.

The weather was quite kind to us and even pleasant by the end of the evening. 

Whilst July can prove to be a rather dull time bird-wise, we did see common tern, sparrowhawk, little egret and were…

Cabinet maker, archaeologist and structural engineer Dave Watt, has been working hard over the last few weeks on the consrtuction of a new boardwalk that will connect the east and west shores of the northern part of the site.  This is part of the infrastructure that is being installed, prior to this part of the reserve opening to the public later this year.

The boardwalk will connect up to the pontoon bridge that was…

….the WeBS year that is. Wetland Bird Survey years run from July – June, so yesterday’s survey was the last of the 2012 – 2013 season. Myself and Warden, Paul conducted the count yesterday, in what is traditionally the quietest WeBS of the year. Here are our results –

71 mallard

29 tufted duck

17 teal

13 gadwall

6 canada goose

3 greylag goose

3 shelduck

13 mute swan

121 coot

3…

We’ve had some warmer weather over the last few days and certainly on Tuesday it actually felt like it was June, instead of March, with plentiful insects around on the public footpath. Several firsts for the year made an appearance including….

Grammoptera ruficornis – longhorn beetle

Tree bumblebee – first discovered at Langford in 2012

Yellow shell moth

Black-tailed skimmer – first dragonflies…

I love longhorn beetles, in fact I love all beetles and I am also rather fond of longhorn moths too, but today I thought I would take a look at some of the species of Cerambycidae, that we have here in the UK, most of which can be found (or are potentially yet to be discovered) at Langford.

There are currently 68 species of longhorn beetle that have been recorded in the UK (Duff, 2012), many of which are native, but…

It's been a rather quiet day for wildlife - I don't blame it, it's hardly glorious summer weather!

However, I did come across this lovely specimen of Anaglyptus mysticus - brilliant name, a longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae), resting on an old sign by the woodland entrance. A beautifully marked species, it is fairly scarce in the UK, with Nb (Nationally Notable B) status and is associated with species rich hedgerows…

Just a quick note to say that our new car park is now open! The access is off Cottage Lane, just south of Collingham village on the A1133 and the gate opens and closes at dawn and dusk.

Use the car park to walk around the public footpath that runs around the perimeter of the reserve and to visit our viewing screen (located on the public footpath) that overlooks one of our reedbed creation areas.

Please note that there…

Following my recent botancial blog, I took these photos on Phase 1 last week and thought we haven't had a quiz for a while. Any guesses at ID'ing these plants before they flower? Answers next week.... 

Yesterday the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the insects were buzzing for the June volunteer Sunday work party. 11 people arrived on a beautiful morning ready for some work including trimming encroaching vegetation off the public footpath – important to keep the access nice and clear, especially now with our new car park and re-surfaced path open. The group also helped to finish off our new pond dipping platform…

A beautiful day today – some sunshine and heat, amazing! But the wildlife has been brilliant, with loads of insects on the wing and some good birds too. Here are today’s highlights….

female marsh harrier over Phase 2

2 avocets on Phase 1

common sandpiper on Phase 1

hobby hunting over silt lagoon 6

mass emergence of damselflies in the last few days has culminated in hundreds on Phase 1 including…

As I'm sure everyone is aware, this spring has been rubbish for insects - very frustrating for us entomologists! The few moth trapping sessions we have done so far this year have produced a grand total of 0 and there are very few day-flying micro moths around in the reserve's grasslands. In fact the best place for moths in 2013 has been....the office!

A month ago I found a small, but very pretty micro moth in…

I had a good half hour by the woodland this morning on the way back from my Breeding Bird Survey. A few insects have emerged (finally!) and in the cool of the morning, were slow enough to photograph - here are the day's images....

These are the larvae of Gastrophysa viridula - the green dock beetle. I was just thinking the other day that I hadn't seen an adult yet this spring, I must have missed them!

Panorpa…

The following course has been advertised on the Derbyshire Natural History Yahoo chat group and may be of interest to some of you:

Paul Shaw is running an adult education course about taking photos of birds in flight this Sunday (10.30  to 4pm) at Carsington for DWT. There will be a falconer present with birds for people to photograph. The cost is £50 and there are still a few places left I'm told.
Booking essential…

Regular readers of this blog and of our social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook will remember the promise of some photos from last week of the day's insect finds. Well, here we go starting with the first Adela reaumurella (longhorn moth) of the year, by the woodland....

Chrysolina fastuosa, one of the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), there were numerous individuals on white dead-nettle around the woodland edge…

It was Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) time again today and many thanks to volunteer Stuart Carlton for doing the survey for us! Here are Stuart’s results –

35 tufted duck

33 mallard

9 gadwall

6 shelduck

4 pochard

2 shoveler

1 teal

20 greylag goose

19 canada goose

60 coot

3 moorhen

5 grey heron

4 little egret

19 great crested grebe

12 mute swan

11 lapwing

6 oystercatcher

6 ringed plover

2 little…