Martin Clay Photography: Langford Lakes

Thursday, 3 May 2012

Langford (Grebe) Lakes

With the day off work on monday and the weekends floods subsiding long enough to contemplate going out for the day, Nat and I headed off down the A303 to Langford Lakes to see what was about. The answer to that question was pretty evident straight away - Not alot!

Tufted Ducks and Canada Geese seemed the only birds to grace the water throughout the reserve, with even the usual Coots and Mallard fairly scarce.

Tufted Drake

Angel Wings? Canada Goose

2 Bird species however didn't appear to be lacking in numbers, I counted 17 Chiffchaffs in the time we spent at Langford, and I did manage to get a fairly decent photography of a singing Chiffchaff from the window of one of the hides.

Singing Chiffchaff

The other was Great-crested Grebe - on the 3 lakes they're were 12 birds, 9 Adults and 3 youngsters - definitely 4 pairs. 1 Pair still sat on a nest and another with 3 hungry youngsters. I don't remember ever seeing so many. Whilst watching the singleton Grebe from the camouflage of the hide, a Kingfisher landed on the branches a mere 10 ft from the windows, a blessing usually, but in this instance a nightmare as no matter how many times he returned to many branches obstructed a picture.

The Grebe chick (Out of Shot) proceeded to wolf down this fish whole!

Still on the nest.

Grebe family.

The singleton.

Not the most thrilling of days but shouldn't complain to much - I thought I'd share this pic I took on friday morning, before the rain returned down at Rooksbury.

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing so much worth doing as messing
around in boats." - Ratty (Wind in the Willows) this little chap might
need a boat if it keeps on raining.

http://www.facebook.com/MartinClayPhotography

Monday, 20 February 2012

Sunny Sunday!

Waking up to some gorgeous sunshine on Sunday morning was a much better feeling, loading up the gear and heading down to Steeple Langford to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts reserve at Langford Lakes, a new location for me and only Half an hour drive from home.

Plenty to see and all 4 hides were empty. 4 Great-crested Grebes the highlight also spotted on the water Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant, Canada Goose, Little Egret, Goosander and a rather large flotilla of Gulls, with plenty of Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull and a rather distant Mediterranean Gull. I'd imagine the roost to grow even more later on in the day.

The smaller feeding station proved quite busy, with Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch & Moorhen stopping by. Also seen around the reserve Blackbird, Dunnock & Wren.

All in all a pretty good reserve, quiet, easy to find, and loads of new work undergoing for a scrape and new hide. Considering its close proximity to home, I was impressed with the location and the wildlife.
A great place to see Grebes.