As a volunteer at Langford Lowfields one of my jobs is to record all the wonderful wildlife which is seen on the reserve. In the coming weeks I’ll be keeping you up to date with all the action, so watch this space.

First of all a big HOORAY as Langford Lowfields reserve is open for visitors. After a winter of discontent, with major flooding, our wonderful sluice has managed to get most of the excess water back into…

Things are heading back to some form or normality and our team of dedicated WeBS volunteers were out again recently counting up the waders and wildfowl on the reserve. Jenny and I had done the last couple of counts during the main lockdown period, but with things easing off, the volunteer team were back in action. A few of the wintering ducks were still present on the count day, but their numbers will now quickly drop…

After a number of weeks of closure, following the severe winter floods, we're going to be re-opening the reserve on 15th March!! Please be aware though, this won't be at the crack of dawn and in all likelihood will be around lunchtime. The stay local message will still be in effect throughout March, but once we get into April we're expecting record numbers of visitors back on site again, experiencing the ever-changing…

In preparation for the highly anticipated re-opening of Langford, our fabulous Visitor Welcome Volunteer Team and Monday Team donned their wellies and undertook the ‘Great Langford Litter Pick’!

Over the course of the day, we scoured the reserve for any and all rubbish that had accumulated from the flood. Together, we collected a grand total of 53.5kg of litter!

The most interesting finds of the day include…

Unfortunately the reserve and car park are still not open. The flooding situation is on-going and until the Trent drops the reserve at least will remain closed. Water is no longer coming over the floodbank, but is still pouring in from Slough Dyke. The public footpath from the car park to the Trent was still flooded at the northern end yesterday and Slough Dyke is still blocking the footpath around the Southern boundary…

Following on from yesterday's announcement, we're sad to say that the Trent came over the flood-bank last night and Langford is quickly filling with water. The reserve is now closed and will remain so until the Trent drops significantly and we can release water back off site (this might not be for a while!!). The car park is also now closed (as of 11am 23rd Jan). The site is completely full of water and with the…

Please be cautious if visiting the reserve. Water is pouring onto site in the South West corner and this is quickly bringing water levels up. Parts of the visitor trail are now submerged. After just checking the river adjacent to the reserve and the latest river level reading from the North Muskham gauging station, it looks like the Trent has still not peaked and with it tickling the top of the flood-bank, it may well…

Just a quick blog, but I wanted to let you know that if visiting Langford, the Seasonal Trail is now closed for the year, this is both to reduce disturbance to wildfowl, because we're drawing near to the time when bittern start prospecting for nest sites and also because water levels are rising fast and the Seasonal Trail is the lowest lying path on the reserve, I imagine by the end of the week it'll start disappearin…

Langford Lowfields remains open to visitors, however in line with government guidance your permitted daily exercise should be done locally wherever possible, you can travel a short distance within your area to access an open space, like Langford, but the expectation is that the reserve will be acting as a green resource for the local community rather than for our normally much welcomed visitors from further afield. Our…

The intrepid WeBS team were squelching around the reserve on Sunday, carrying out the monthly count of all the water-loving birds on site. The weather was horrendous, but I held them in my thoughts as I enjoyed a restful lie-in... The reserve is surveyed in 3 parts, by 3 sub-teams and then the results collated. Not always easy, due to the fact that birds can fly and move around the reserve, but the team are now experts…

Apologies if I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we have unprecedented visitor numbers on site at the moment. We never get massive numbers, but our previous highest count in November was 229 and this year we had 1229. Exactly 1000 more. Please bear this in mind, as you may well need a bit of patience when parking and when walking up to the reserve. The site is used by a range of people and so please do…

If being part of the small team at Langford Lowfields sounds like your dream job, we are currently searching for a new Administrator... The deadline for applications is coming up very soon though - 27th November!! Full details on the RSPB Vacancies website: http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/job-vacancies/details/482388-administrator

As mentioned yesterday, we have record numbers of people on site at the moment, it is very busy and we look set to smash our previous maximum monthly visitor count. Please maintain the 2m social distance from other visitors and be courteous and patient with others. Probably a good idea to stick some hand sanitizer in your pocket too, so you can give your hands a clean before and after touching the gates leading onto the…

Just a quick message to say that we have a lot of people visiting the reserve at the moment, particularly at weekends. If you do visit the site, whether for photography, wildlife watching or just for a relaxing stroll in some beautiful surroundings, please, please, please remember the social distancing rules. 

Just to let you all know that it's that special time of year when the sugar beet is harvested from the fields surrounding our car park. The fruits of the harvest are piled up in a huge heap near the car park and are then loaded onto lorries to be taken to the fragrant sugar factory just outside Newark. The lorry loading will be happening this weekend (21st & 22nd November) and so there will be some delays for people driving…

We know that for many of you, RSPB Langford Lowfields provides a place of enjoyment, peace and solace during these challenging times. A place to immerse yourselves in nature, to see some amazing wildlife and to step away from the maelstrom of modern life.

That's why (in line with Government guidance on essential, daily outdoor exercise), during this second lockdown, the reserve will remain open for you to visit. 

Please…

After our wild bird seed crop was over-run last year by all sorts of undesirable species, we had a re-think this year and put in a cereal crop instead of the normal broad-leaved crop, thus making it a lot easier for us to deal with the plague of broad-leaved weeds. The cereal crop includes millet, quinoa, triticale, wheat and barley (we did add some extra sunflowers, but these didn't come up) and it's worked really well…

Wetland Bird Survey count for October...

Canada goose

216

Greylag goose

271

Coot

201

Cormorant

91

Gadwall

54

Great crested grebe

17

Great white egret

2

Grey heron

7

Mallard

156

Moorhen

13

Mute swan

43

Pochard

3

Shoveler

53

Teal

96

Tufted duck

176

Water rail

12

Wigeon

31

Little grebe

5

Black-headed gull

20…

I've been sitting on the September WeBS counts for a little while, but finally your patience can be rewarded!! This is the first WeBS count that's happened since the covid lock-down came into effect way back in the mists of time, so it was a special moment, with our WeBS team (Stuart, Tony and Mark) surveying the site with full biohazard suits on.

Coot

180

Cormorant

12

Great crested grebe

28

…

Autumn migration continues here at Langford, with another good haul of waders dropping into the site. Recent reports have included black-tailed godwit, knot, dunlin, ringed plover, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, ruff and whimbrel. The two knot on Friday 21st August were very confiding indeed as they fed quite happily around us as we planted reed out on Phase 3 - lovely.

Knot. Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Our great…

It's been a while since I last did a blog post... We've been very very busy and blogging slipped off the radar... After opening the reserve back up on 8th June, we've had our highest ever monthly visitor count, with over 1000 people recorded throughout July and that's only people counted when one of our volunteer team of Wandering Wardens is on duty. It's been brilliant seeing so many people out on site, many discovering…

It's been a busy few weeks at Langford, with our volunteer groups returning to work in a Covid secure way - it has been great to see everyone and get some good work done. Focus has been on grass cutting all our public areas of the site and fencing along the western boundary that was damaged in the flood back in March. 

It's also been a good few weeks for birds on site and there are definitely signs of autumn migration…

Spring is well underway here at Langford, with all our summer migrants now back on site. We have our 10 species of warbler breeding on the reserve again this year, with grasshopper warblers using the area of scrub we did some work in for them back in the winter - always nice to see the fruits of your labour!

There are at least three cuckoos on site, with two seen together this morning (9th June) and another heard singing…

23rd May...

Please be aware that Langford Lowfields is still currently closed, with re-opening planned for early June. After a prolonged period of closure we need time to prepare the reserve ready for visitors again, as well as finishing the tidy up and damage repair after the severe winter floods. With half the two-person team currently furloughed, I've been focusing on the critical tasks and things like cutting the…

I'm a bit behind schedule getting this blog posted, but in line with government advice Langford Lowfields is closed to the public to dissuade large groups of people gathering and to also dissuade people from driving to get their daily exercise. Both the car park and the reserve itself are closed.

Following the severe winter flooding, this virus situation now means the reserve has been closed for a few months, which…