On Saturday 26th February, Paul Bennett kindly led a walk for Lound Bird Club at Beckingham Marshes in the morning. We then drove to Langford Lowfields and had lunch in the RSPB office, where warm drinks were most welcome. Walking out onto Phase 2, a smart male goldeneye was on one of the silt lagoons, a flock of 15 golden plovers flew over and a green sandpiper was feeding along a ditch. We spent some time scanning the established reedbed of Phase 1, but unfortunately none of the reedbed specialist birds put in an appearance; however, it was windy over the reedbed with a cold north westerly wind blowing across the reserve. From our watch point though we could view the bird feeders and we saw two bramblings, a tree sparrow, a male bullfinch and several reed buntings, greenfinches, goldfinches and chaffinches. Walking back round to Phase 2 an immature male peregrine was found sitting on a bank and whilst watched for about 15 minutes was seen in flight twice. Water birds seen on Phase 2 were grey heron, wigeon, teal, gadwall, mallard, tufted duck and coot. Three long-tailed tits were flitting through willows and a pair of great crested grebes was on one of the silt lagoons, resplendent in their breeding plumage.
I decided to stay on and watch the reedbed after the group left, and a female marsh harrier came in to roost.
We all thank Paul for leading such an informative and interesting walk, which gave all the LBC members an opportunity to see both reserves from behind the scenes.