Winter is well and truly upon us this week, as Langford (and most other places!) is cloaked in a blanket of snow. Cold it may be, but it is very pretty and also a brilliant time of year for birdwatching!

Wildfowl are plentiful and in the freezing conditions are concentrated in the small areas of water that aren't frozen. 400 teal, tufted duck and mallard were making good use of Phase 3 yesterday afternoon and a lone…

Just when I thought the starling roost couldn't get any better....they go and surprise us again!

Myself and volunteers Keith Stedman and Julie Straw spent the day out on the boat, launching the last of the submerged fish shelters into Phase 2. Getting out in the boat at Langford is fantastic. You get to see the site from a completely different perspective - a 'duck's eye view'! And on a (fairly) warm and calm day…

A big happy birthday to our volunteer Graham Usher today (I won't say which one!!). Graham has been volunteering with us for nearly five years now and come rain or shine, is always up for some hard graft and a good laugh with staff and other vols. He was even in today on his birthday, helping us take the last of the reed fencing off Phase 2 - that's dedication!

We had a great day, completely finishing off the…

Today had to be the best starling roost I have ever seen....and not just at Langford - anywhere! So after a good day's work myself and volunteer Graham Usher made sure we were in prime viewing position looking over Phase 1, ready for the evening's spectacle.

The birds started appearing at around 15.45, with small groups flying over the reedbed and then disappearing out of sight. At 16.00 the first of the large…

Sightings on Phase 1 for November 10th and 11th:

1 merlin

1 sparrowhawk (which chased a blackbird into one of our containers!)

bearded tits (heard, but not seen)

1 water rail

1 goldeneye

1 redshank

2 snipe

2 pintail (M)

2 green sandpipers

c. 3000 starlings coming to roost

c. 60 fieldfare

1 grey wagtail

2 little egrets

Monday 1st November

1 merlin (F)

1 green sandpiper

2+ little egret

Tuesday 2nd November

1 marsh harrier (juv.) - over Phase 1at 12.30

1 grey wagtail

c. 100 golden plover - above fields just west of Cromwell Lock with flock of c. 100 lapwing

Before heading off for another day at Beckingham Marshes, I managed to grab ten minutes up at Phase 1 to look for the bearded tits that Michael and Graham Gamage found last Friday.

Anybody that has ever tried to find this elusive reedbed dweller, will know that they can be quite difficult to locate, but fortune was on my side today!

As soon as I raised my binoculars , I heard their distinctive 'pinging' contact call…

I'll keep this post brief but the fantstic news hot off the press is that a group of 4+ bearded tits have turned up on site for the first time since 2005

I happened to be sitting up at the containers with one of our great birders Graham Gamage, and we spotted 2 bearded tits float in to the reed fringe at phase 1, a male and female than perched up high on some greater bulrush for us to get a great view in the scope. Fantasitc…

If I can suggest the perfect time to visit Langford Lowfields, it would be twelve minutes past six in the evening. This may sound a touch precise, but I decided this was my favourite time yesterday evening, for very good reasons.

Let me quickly set the scene for you; gentle autumn breeze, the sun sloping off to the west, and I was slowly approaching the phase one reed bed at the northern point of the reserve. I had…

To help get a view of the wildlife thriving here at the site a circular walk using the public footpath and national cycle network around the Langford Lowfields site, can be viewed using google maps via the link below.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115203853367189489615.00048da45c859e3a2925d&t=h&z=14>

Dave Sharpe one of our regular volunteers has highlighted where to…

It certainly was here at Langford, as our monthly volunteers worked their socks off removing fencing from Phase 2 and building a whopping 21 fish shelters! The fence removal job is going brilliantly, with miles of the stuff already taken out and moved off the developing reedbed. It looks fantastic to see the area 'fence-free' and is a testiment to how well the reedbed creation is going – the growing…

If you missed the piece of BBC Look North last night, which was cut a bit short! You can access the whole version via the BBC website using the following link http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lincolnshire/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8977000/8977590.stm

Hello hello...

Just a quick message to let you know the RSPB Beckingham Marshes project is well underway - and you can see for yourself on BBC local news tonight!

If you can recieve the BBC Look North then keep an eye out at 6:30 pm as the footage shows some great digger work and a few shots of me in a helmet rumaging around a shallow ditch. The project is running on schedule with over 70 scrapes created thus far, and…

It was a wild and windy weekend here at Langford as on Sunday, myself and volunteer Graham Usher led the final marsh harrier walk in our series of four, held over the past six weeks.

Once again, there was a fantastic turnout, with 23 people arriving on site mid-afternoon,for a two hour stroll around hoping to see some good birds and we weren't disappointed!

The walk started off with a brilliant view of two swi…

Twenty-four members of the public joined us for another guided 'Marsh Harrier Walk' yesterday afternoon and we were blessed with fine weather, which was a most welcome after the previous weeks weather!

Upon arrival at the southern end of Phase 2, we were greeted by a pair of hobby's, which were hunting over the reedbed.  We didn't have to wait too much longer before the male adult marsh harrier showed…

It's that time of year again, for most of us we are in the height of the British summer but for birders, the breeding season has long finished and autumn has already begun and will soon be in full swing!

It is during August, September and into October that many bird species embark upon their migrations from breeding to wintering grounds, some stopping off at Langford for a quick rest and re-fuel…

It was a late night on Saturday at Langford as I was joined by Sheila Wright, the Nottinghamshire County Moth Recorder, for an evening moth trapping on Phase 1. We met up at 9 o'clock and made our way down to the reedbed on what was an ideal evening for a spot of mothing! The skies were overcast, temperatures were high and the wind and rain held off as we set up the trap in hope of some good finds.…

Michael, Jenny and Myself took Colin Horne, the RSPB's Safety Advisor, for a quick site tour in our Land Rover yesterday afternoon.

As soon as we set off from the southern end of Phase 1, we picked up one of the juvenile marsh harriers flying left to right over the reedbed.

It dropped on to a small willow on the eastern bank, where it gave us stunning views from as close as 20 metres away.

This is the first juvenile…

Well. It is overwhelmingly good news!

The first breeding pair Langford Lowfieds has ever had, has successfully raised 2 chicks...and counting!

The adult birds have kept us guessing for many a week now, as the male has often secretively completed food passes to the female over the southern end of the reserve, whilst the female would appear to be very busy one day - dropping in rabbits and chasing feral pigeons - then…

Well it's the end of another busy week at Langford and in light of the recent discovery of purple hairstreak on the reserve, on Wednesday we spent a pleasant afternoon insect hunting. The hairstreak itself was not seen, but we had some lovely sightings of other butterflies such as brown argus, a lovely little species with it's brown forewings edged with delicate orange spots.

Next was a…

Spurred on by the discovery of purple hairstreak butterflies on site by our Conservation Officer Carl Cornish, Site Manager Michael Copleston, went out at lunchtime, in search of this seemingly widespread (according to Butterfly Conservation), but often overlooked butterfly.

I say 'seemingly', as I have certainly never seen one before and neither had some of the volunteers that were also lucky enough to see Michael's…

Yesterday, myself and volunteer Graham Usher led the first of our four scheduled Marsh Harrier Walks, that we are running through July and August.  Fortunately, the weather had picked up after the rain that preceded the morning's Wetland Bird Survey, though the wind was still on the strong side.

One of our visitors spotted a hobby before we had even left the gravel processing plant, which boded well for the rest of…