More sightings from the latter half of this week -

Wednesday -

First singing yellowhammers of 2011

2 marsh harriers over Phase 3

7 shelduck on silt lagoon 6

90 lapwing on silt lagoon 7

2 little egrets on Phase 2

The regular 9 whooper swans on silt lagoon 5

And a bit of botanical news - the first flowering coltsfoot of 2011 on Phase 2

Thursday -

Immature female marsh harrier on Phase 1

Cetti's warbler…

So far this week....

Monday -

Peregrine on Phase 2

2 brambling on the Phase 1 feeders

c. 50 wigeon on Phase 2

5 male and 1 female shoveler on Phase 2

Green woodpecker in willows by lagoon 6

2 little egret on Phase 2

5 male and 3 female bullfinch in the Phase 1 scrub - a good number for Langford!

Tuesday -

Immature female marsh harrier on Phase 2

Peregrine flying over Phase 1

Green woodpecker by lagoon 7

Between a day's holiday on Thursday and a day at Beckingham today, I have not had much chance to see what's about at Langford in the latter half of this week. But not to worry, there are still plenty of sightings to report....

Wednesday -

Barn owl hunting over Phase 1

5 little egrets on Phase 2

Immature male and female marsh harriers

Cetti's warbler singing from Phase 1

First singing reed bunting of…

Some recent sightings so far this week....

Yesterday -

9 whooper swans on lagoon 5

2 shelduck on lagoon 6

Immature male marsh harrier on Phase 1

And today -

Great spotted woodpecker in the woodland

A snipe on Phase 1

Immature male marsh harrier hunting over Phase 1, then heading off the the south

3 little grebes on Phase 2

120 lapwing flying over Phase 1

2 buzzard over the footpath and silt lagoons

and…

Shortly after I arrived for yesterday's volunteer work party, volunteer John Ellis arrived at our Portakabin having been out on site birding.  I gave John the usual 'much about?' greeting, to which he responded 'a couple of probable mealy redpolls.'

If you're not familiar with mealy redpoll, it was considered to be a subspecies of redpoll, but is now considered to be a species in it's own right…

It's been rather windswept here at Langford this week, but despite the gales we had a successful volunteer Sunday yesterday. The day was spent collecting reed panicles (seed heads) and making some new fish shelters. The reed panicles will be stored away until the summer when they will be propagated in the polytunnel and scattered out on Phase 2 where they should germinate well this coming growing season.

The new…

This week so far....

Yesterday -

1 treecreeper in the woodland

1 male pintail seen flying over Phase 1 onto the silt lagoons

Immature male marsh harrier hunting over Phase 1

Green woodpecker by silt lagoon 7

And today -

Immature male marsh harrier on Phase 1

1 shelduck flying inot the silt lagoons

9 whooper swans flew south to north over the reserve

4 grey partridge on Phase 2

3 snipe on Phase 2

1 merli…

January 29th 2011 Recent Sightings list for Langford Lowfields:

• 9 whooper swan - Silt lagoons seen from Eastern boundary
• 2 marsh harrier - male and female over northern reedbed (phase 1)
• 2 pintail - drake and female in phase 2 reedbed
• 1 cetti's warbler - northern reedbed
• 15 siskin - working alder shrub line at the eastern boundary bird screen
• 3 brambling - 2 male 1 female in shrub line at the eastern boundary…

The excitment of a night's moth trapping has well and truly passed this week as the temperatures have dropped once again, but I did notice a couple of signs of the recent warmer weather in the woodland yesterday as I walked along the footpath - many of the elders on the path edge are coming into leaf and a few small snowdrop stalks are poking their heads above ground!

But whilst the insects have hidden themselves…

I was inspired by the warm weather and the welcome sight of moths on Wednesday night last week, so decided to check the weather for Thursday and have the first moth trapping session of 2011! To my delight the forecast was for cloudy skies, light winds, no heavy rain and 10C - perfect 'mothing' conditions. So out came the moth trap, battery fully charged and ready to go and I found an ideal sheltered spot by the…

Well the weather has finally decided to turn this week and it has felt very pleasant indeed out on the reserve in the last few days in temperatures of a whopping 12C! And this is certainly good news for our wildlife as the ice has finally disappeared food becomes more available again and there has been loads of activity around recently.

A sighting of a bittern is always exciting, so two sightings in one day must be double…

We started off the new year here at Langford with the first volunteer Sunday of 2011 on 2nd January. And what better way to work off all that Christmas food than to spend a day clearing willow scrub around the silt lagoons!

We began the day by taking a walk around the public footpath, along the edge of the silt lagoons looking for the drake smew that had been spotted the previous day by volunteer John Ellis. He found…

Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our blog readers out there!

With the cold weather returning this week, most of the reserve is once again frozen over. Wildfowl are plentiful on silt lagoon 4 and Phase 3, including around 700 teal, numerous mallard and tufted duck, with beautiful male pintail, wigeon and goldeneye.

The feeding station on Phase 1 has been busy, with a large flock of…

Despite the fact that we had to advise people that our starling flock (or murmuration) had moved on to warmer climes, fourteen people still decided to take the opportunity to join me on site yesterday.

Regular readers of this blog page will be aware that we did have approximately 15,000 starlings roosting in our Phase 1 reedbed.  Unfortunately, consistent sub-zero temperatures have left Phase 1 frozen over.  This has meant…

It certainly felt bleak as I met volunteers John Ellis, Julie Straw and Linda Lowndes at 08.00 this morning.  It wasn't really surprising as John's in-car thermometer told us that it was -7 degrees C! 

We had arranged to meet up, to carry out December's WeBS Count (Wetland Bird Survey).  As John had already visited Langford yesterday, to look for the smew that had been on site all week (see Jenny's 'Good Smews…

A very nice surprise was awaiting me yesterday afternoon as I made my way around Phase 2 to top up the bird feeders at the south end of the reserve!

It had been a fairly quiet afternoon bird-wise, with teal, mallard and tufted duck on the silt lagoons, a group of black-headed gulls, joined by a couple of common gulls loafing on the ice on silt lagoon 5 and a water rail squealing away from the frozen reedbed on Phase…

Another great day here at Langford including:

• brambling and siskin at the feeding station, plus plentiful goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit and great tit,
• peregrine hunting on Phase 3,
• three kingfishers - good to know they are still around in the freezing weather,
• snipe on Phase 3 and a group of three feeding on Phase 2,
• woodcock on Phase 3 - this bird had a lucky escape as the peregrine fancied it's chances…

It's amazing how productive even a short walk at Langford can be! After a day spent in the office, I went out for a stroll round the public footpath up to Phase 1. The first surprise was a treecreeper in the scrub just along the footpath from the processing plant. I spotted the bird flitting between two trees, then winding it's way up a trunk searching for insects. It isn't a bird I see that often at Langford, usually…

This morning volunteer Graham Usher and myself braved the -11C temperature and took a walk around the reserve doing our monthly boundary check. It was a beautiful morning, despite the bitter cold, with the whole landscape white with snow and wonderfully formed frost on the trees, scrub and other vegetation.

At the south end of the reserve, a lovely male bullfinch added some colour to the scene as numerous fieldfares…

I've been making my way into work this week through the snow drift fields of Collingham, following the hidden footpaths and trails that lead to the reserve.

As I'm sure you will agree, the views have been spectacular and the snow really does add something magical to the landscape, but what has really pleased me is observing how some of the little touches of conservation management carried out at the reserve are…

I'm sure that I'd be preaching to the converted, if I reminded blog group members of the importance of feeding garden birds during this prolonged cold spell.  

However, I thought it worth mentioning that it is equally important that your birds also get a supply of water.  Not only do they need this to drink, but also to wash and preen their feathers. 

Admittedly, this can be rather labour intensive at the moment…