Volunteer Sunday was upon us once again last weekend and what a glorious day we had for some site maintenance tasks in the morning, followed by the annual bird race in the afternoon. 9 people arrived bright and early for some polytunnel work, car park and footpath maintenance.

It is that time of year again, when the polytunnel starts to need lots of maintenance including weeding, watering and seeding. All five propagation…

Each year I usually get the opportunity to go up to our reserve at Beckingham Marshes near Gainsborough to do a breeding bird survey. So, this morning I made my way up there, arriving on site for 07.00 on a beautiful, sunny spring morning – albeit with a definite chill in the air.

I don’t usually get the chance to see the reserve at this time in the morning and very pleasant it was too, with displaying l…

After a relatively quiet start to the Breeding Bird Survey season, the warblers have finally started to descend on us in numbers and this morning’s survey was alive with song!

From the office to silt lagoon 6, we recorded 18 sedge warbler, 11 reed warbler, 3 chiffchaff, 4 willow warbler, 6 whitethroat and a lesser whitethroat. This number should increase too over the coming weeks, with a while to go to reach last…

Spring has to be my favourite time of year, with everything coming to life and the potential for anything to turn up! It’s been rather good at Langford this week, so here are some of our recent sightings….

2 whimbrel

2 common tern

2 swift

2 red kite

4 wheatear

1 tree pipit

20+ yellow wagtail

1 blue headed wagtail

2-3 white wagtail

14 sedge warbler

1 reed warbler

18 whitethroat

2 lesser whitet…

Have you made an early morning visit to our viewing screen recently? If you have then you may well have come across staff and volunteers bird ringing. The concept of ringing is over 100 years old and has been in operation in the UK since 1909, when the first two schemes were started by Aberdeen University and British Birds (the well known ornithological journal, which began life in 1907). Since then, ringing has grown…

After a good few days holiday in Dorset, I’ve just come back to news of more and more migrants pouring onto site. This morning the Phase 1 scrub was alive with singing birds, with willow warblers, chiffchaffs and blackcaps in full voice. After the first sedge warbler of the year on Tuesday last week, silt lagoon 6 is now full of them, posing a good challenge for the Breeding Bird Survey tomorrow morning!

And so…

Last Sunday saw 14 people attend the second of this year's 'Discover Langford Lowfields' guided walks.  The weather was so bad during the March walk that only two brave souls attended that one.  Therefore, I was buoyed by the weather forecast for last Sunday predicting sunshine and a temperature of 19 degrees centigrade.  The forecast turned out to be accurate, however, I wasn't expecting to have to deal with…

Regular readers will have read about our little newt found in the polytunnel a few weeks ago. Well, we managed to find another one (or the same one?) last Friday and this time had the camera! So, can anyone assist us with it's identification? It was around 55mm long (I suspect not fully grown) and had no spotting at all on the underside of the throat or belly. I've read that the key is in the orange line that runs down…

I never stop talking about the weather! It was nice to do a WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) in warm sunshine today though, something which hasn't happened for some time! Here are this morning's results....

122 tufted duck, 82 mallard, 15 teal, 9 gadwall, 1 pochard, 1 goldeneye, 21 mute swan, 13 canada goose, 4 greylag goose, 2 shelduck, 70 coot, 1 moorhen, 5 little egret, 3 grey heron, 6 great crested grebe, 5 little…

I set off to do a Breeding Bird Survey in bright sunshine and 11C this morning, albeit with a strong south westerly blowing! I was hopeful, since this was the warmest morning this spring and I wasn’t disappointed.

My first new migrants of the year were two arctic terns flying over the public footpath just as I left the office – a brilliant start to the morning and my first arctic terns on site since May 2010! Next…

I found this metallic green ground beetle on Phase 2 this afternoon whilst looking for green tiger beetles. No tigers, but this little chap was a nice find. Look out for an ID later on in the week.

What a beautiful day it was yesterday, with warm sunshine, no cold wind and April’s volunteer Sunday. Everyone who attended definitely picked the best day as we worked out on Phases 1 and 2, it definitely felt like spring.

Our volunteer birders John, Graham and Julie were up before dawn to do the annual water rail survey on site, covering all the likely areas where the birds might be residing. In total they found…

Spring is continuing to advance – very slowly! Last week saw the first small tortoiseshell butterfly on site and indeed the first butterfly for weeks, since a peacock was seen in a brief warmer spell in January! This was then followed by two more small tortoiseshells yesterday and my first bumblebee of the year. The large queen was flying around silt lagoon 2, presumably taking advantage of the plentiful willow…

It’s finally happened – spring migrants have started arriving on site after a longer than usual wait! First thing yesterday morning, we were treated to four little ringed plovers on Phase 1, accompanied by four redshank, two oystercatchers and displaying lapwing. It’s definitely wader week too, with green sandpiper and numerous snipe also present on site.

I heard my first chiffchaff singing this morning…

I have to admit to not knowing a great deal about amphibians – despite the fact that they are indeed fascinating creatures, birds and insects always seem to dominate my time (there’s so much to learn, you can’t do it all!) However, I sense a new interest looming for this coming spring and summer and it’s all down to a little newt that myself and volunteer John Elwell found in the polytunnel on…

It’s that time of year again when spring migrants meet winter visitors here at Langford – a real transition period that can often see singing warblers accompanied by whooper swans and flocks of fieldfares and redwings flying over displaying oystercatchers and ringed plovers.

Indeed the first spring migrants have now arrived on site, with 2-3 oystercatchers present for the last week or so and a pair displaying…

With winter back in full swing (we are experiencing a heavy hail shower as I type….), the start of my Breeding Bird Survey season has been somewhat thwarted! However, despite the cold temperatures, this morning the sun was shining and we ventured out into the woodland for an hour to see what was around.

Unsurprisingly there wasn’t as much singing activity as last Wednesday, but I did manage to pick up 5 …

It may be mid-March, but winter is definitely still in full swing here at Langford, with temperatures struggling to get above 0C and an inch of snow yesterday and the forecast not looking too much better for today either! And being the middle of the month, it was of course time for the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) once again. Here are yesterday’s results….

256 tufted duck

62 mallard

43 teal

29 wigeon

On Wednesday morning this week, we were able to do the first Breeding Bird Survey of 2013. This is one of my favourite activities on site – I love getting out onto site early, the reserve is beautiful that time in the morning and this week, the birds were in full voice!

Some time spent around silt lagoon 6 produced squealing water rail and singing Cetti’s warbler, as well as up to 6 reed buntings singing…

Last Sunday, 3^rd March was once again volunteer Sunday and this month we had 8 people arriving bright and early for a day of scrub removal along our eastern boundary fence line. This work has two main benefits, the first being that the grassland adjacent to the fence line is botanically very diverse, with species such as vetches, knapweeds and clovers, which in turn is great for invertebrates. If we let scrub encroach…

First of all, apologies for the lack of reserve updates this week, I have been away on an excellent first aid course, run by St John Ambulance in Lincoln. So, a big thank you to them for an interesting and very informative three days – great organisation doing great work!

On my return yesterday, we had a busy volunteer day collecting reed panicles, which are now stored away ready to propagate in the polytunnel…

Just a quick blog to update everyone on some reserve sightings from the last week….

35 whooper swans, 80 golden plover and 760 lapwing on Phase 1 on Sunday,

Little egrets back on site after a two month absence due to flooding,

Peregrine over Phase 1 last Tuesday,

100’s of fieldfares feeding on the field adjacent to the woodland yesterday,

Great spotted and green woodpeckers in the woodland and around…

Just to prove my point about the benefits of dead wood from yesterday's blog, here is a decaying tree that I came across in our woodland yesterday afternoon. The whole stem had been attacked, with piles of wood chippings on the floor underneath. Whatever is responsible was obviously after an abundant source of food within the wood - beetle larvae perhaps (Anobium punctatum holes are visible in the photo)?

So, what…

What use is a tree when it dies? You may think not much, however dead wood is a vital component of the woodland ecosystem, with many functions including providing food and breeding areas for a wide variety of organisms, nutrient cycling, soil formation and hydrological cycling. In fact, the biodiversity of a woodland is increased massively due to the presence of plenty of dead wood.

A dead sycamore stump showing holes…

It's not very often that we have guest blogs here on the Langford page, but from now on one of our newest members of staff will be blogging here on a monthly basis. So, I'm pleased to introduce Roseanna Burton, Sherwood, Trent and Tame Futurescapes Community Engagement Officer, who will be telling us about some of her exciting work in the wider area around Langford and beyond in the coming months. So, without…