I completed the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) on Monday this week on a beautifully sunny, but very cold winter’s morning. January’s WeBS is usually very productive as the numbers of wintering wildfowl have built up over the previous couple of months and this year’s count didn’t disappoint. With much of the reserve’s waterbodies frozen, the birds were concentrated into a smaller area too, making the spectacle…

When I have managed to get out of the office this week, it has been rather productive bird-wise.  I've seen three new species that I've never seen on site before!

On Monday afternoon I flushed out a short-eared owl on the western side of the reserve.  Shortly after this I saw a drake goosander that flew over Phase 2. 

Today I managed to catch up with a marsh tit that Jenny spotted along the footpath between the…

I had a productive walk around the reserve this morning conducting my monthly perimeter check on what can only be described as a beautiful day! So I set off with the sun shining, blue skies, a gentle breeze and temperatures in double figures and I was hopeful for some good birds – I wasn’t disappointed….

First sighting of the day was a large tit and finch flock moving it’s way through the woodland…

The first volunteer work party of 2012 was very well attended with 17 volunteers turning out on a rather pleasant day.

On the walk up to the containers, we were treated to views of two drake goldeneye and a kingfisher on Silt Lagoon 1.  Graham Usher then spotted the first of four skeins of pink-footed geese passing high over the reserve. 

The group split into three teams, tackling willow planting (in front of the containers…

Happy New Year to all our blog readers out there! It’s been a good Christmas and New Year period here at Langford with some fantastic wildlife sightings by our staff and volunteers. Recent highlights include –

1 male goosander on the silt lagoons

2 pintail

8 shoveler

2 shelduck

2 goldeneye

2 peregrines

1 merlin

1 short eared owl

3 cetti’s warblers

1 green sandpiper

2 little egrets

3 whooper…

It’s been an exciting day for wildlife recording here at Langford with some star bird species making an appearance and a potential first for the County!

The day started off rather dreary, with overcast skies and light rain as I made my way around silt lagoon 4, but I was soon cheered up by the fantastic squeal of a water rail in the bankside vegetation right beside me. Numerous redwings and fieldfares flew over…

With the current phase of landscaping on the verge of completion, Site Manager Michael Copleston couldn't wait to spread the word.

So, yesterday he invited BBC Radio Nottingam's Mark Dennison to the site, to tell him all about it.

You can hear Michael's interview on Mark's programme on Friday morning at 10.00.

In the meantime, you can 'read all about it' on the BBC Mobile news page on the internet…

I was out on site today conducting the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) and what a pleasant morning it was, with clear skies and bright sunshine.

The results of the count are as follows –

99 teal

72 tufted duck

61 mallard

39 wigeon

18 gadwall

4 pochard

2 goldeneye

1 shoveler

5 little grebe

1 great crested grebe

3 grey heron

1 little egret

2 cormorant

1 green sandpiper

6 coot

2 moorhen

9 mute…

The end of the year is fast approaching and so too the end of our re-development works. Our contractors are now on the final stages of the project, re-profiling the balancing pond. The balancing pond is an area at the very north end of the site that was quarried out at the very beginning of the quarry's life, but was left unlandscaped when Phase 1 was originally created.

The work being conducted now will take material…

We had some new arrivals at Langford yesterday, when we took delivery of 1100 young rudd, or Scardinus erythrophthalmus, to give them their scientific name. The fish, which were bred and delivered by the Environment Agency have been introduced into Phase 1 and will hopefully grow on to become an important breeding population within our wetland habitat, supplememnting the existing fish populations in the reedbed and they…

The last volunteer Sunday of 2011 was held last weekend on a cold, but lovely sunny winter’s day. This month’s activity was willow planting – yes, you read that correctly, willow planting! We are usually controlling this tree as it invades the reedbed, an important part of our work to maintain the wetland habitats on site. However, just for a change we have planted approximately 500 willow whips around our new work area…

It’s been blowing a gale here today at Langford and combined with some heavy showers this afternoon, it’s been a rather dreary day. However, the miserable weather most definitely doesn’t deter the wildlife!

This morning I was treated to a brilliant view of 3 whooper swans on silt lagoon 4, looking stunning with their bright white plumage and striking yellow and black bills. I had first picked them up…

The monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) was completed on site yesterday by myself and Warden Paul Bennett. This involves counting all waterbirds on site and submitting the data to the British Trust for Ornithology and is part of a national network of sites contributing data to this important monitoring scheme. Our results from yesterday are as follows –

2 little grebe

2 great crested grebe

103 teal

67 malla…

I'm sure that most of you will be aware of the fact that during the winter, starlings often gather in huge, swirling flocks, prior to going to roost and will often use reedbeds to roost in.  You may also remember that last winter at Langford, we had approximately 15,000 starlings using our Phase 1 reedbed to roost in; that is before the big freeze put paid to it.

Well, despite the fact that part of our reeded area…

There's been a steady increase in the number of birds on site and in particular, those that one might associate with winter time.

Flocks of winter thrushes, namely fieldfares and redwings can be seen and heard overhead throughout the day and our starling roost is starting to grow, with Michael having seen around 2000 yesterday.  This flock may well have attracted the sparrowhawk that we saw this afternoon.

Wildfowl…

We had another successful volunteer Sunday this weekend, with 14 people arriving on site ready for a hard days work. And what a beautiful day it was as we set off, with cloudless skies, not a breath of wind and the sun still giving off some warmth, even in November!

The main task for the day was building the reed growing bays in the new polytunnel. The group soon got to work fixing together wooden frames, levelling…

After no bittern sightings for four months, I was very excited to finally glimpse one a couple of weeks ago on my monthly WeBS count. But one sighting every four months just isn’t enough of these secretive birds.

So imagine how good it felt this morning when I stepped out of the workshop and was greeted by the wonderful sight of a bittern flying over Phase 2 and into the reedy edge of the silt lagoons!

Could…

Paul Afford and his team are making good progress with the landforming, with silt lagoon 7 really starting to take shape.

A central 'spine' with various 'arms' coming off it has been created and will form one of the large islands where the reeds will be planted.

This is the all-important 'underwater topography' that gets mentioned whenever we lead guided walks here or visit groups to give illustrated…

It’s all change here at Langford as the re-development work on Phase 1 continues. With the weather still on our side, our contractors have now started work on silt lagoon 7. This is the first of the reedbed areas to be newly created and incorporated into the existing Phase 1.

But despite all the heavy machinery on site, there are still plenty of good birds around, as I discovered yesterday whilst doing the monthly…

The above-titled course was held today at nearby Winthorpe, with an afternoon excursion around Langford Lowfields.

The course was run by RSPB National Wetlands Advisor Nick Droy and Biodiversity Projects Officer Jane Sears. Nick and Jane presented the findings of the Bringing Reedbeds to Life Wildlife Survey Programme, which was funded by Natural England.

The survey has looked at five different reedbed sites around…

Those of you that also read our Beckingham Marshes blog, will have read about Alan Lee and his HD camera-equipped model aeroplane (or flying wing to be exact).

Those of you that don't, may have seen something similar on last Sunday's Countryfile.

Well, after taking aerial film footage of Beckingham, Alan then visited Langford Lowfields to do the same.

The footage can be seen by clicking on the link below.

We have had incredible weather here at Langford in the last week or so, with tempertures hitting 29C by the end of last week! This has been a welcome extension of summer for us, but there are also some definite signs of autumn about the place too. Haws and sloes are now very visible on the hedgerow by the public footpath, as the trees loose their leaves and there are some lovely autumn colours developing too along the…

If you would like to hear Site Manager Michael Copleston talking about the reserve on the Mark Dennison programme yesterday then follow this link and forward 2 hours and 14 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00k9xkf

Happy listening

We usually need a boat and a heavy weight to install our fish shelters.  However, due to the currently low water level in Phase 2, we managed to put seven of them out quite quickly last Friday.

This was achieved by transporting them in our trailer and securing them with metal pins.

Unfortunately, volunteers John Coates and Ian Holmes ended up getting a lot wetter than if we'd done it in the usual manner! 

However…

Staff and volunteers from the RSPB’s shop at Top Lodge will again be bringing up a range of optics to Langford this Sunday, to try and buy. 

Products will include the RSPB and Viking range, along with some Swarovski and Leica products too.  There should be some good offers on telescopes e.g. a third off some RSPB scopes and £200 off some of the Viking range.  There should also be one of the new RSPB HD telescopes…