3 minute read
Reserve Focus: Langford Lakes
By Kirstine Bowen, Marketing and Communications Manager
Nestled in the Wylye Valley between Salisbury and Warminster, Langford Lakes is one of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s flagship nature reserves with great facilities including a café, art gallery and events space.
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What can I do at Langford Lakes?
Langford Lakes nature reserve has a relaxing atmosphere with good level paths for easy walking. You can enjoy watching wildfowl from five hides overlooking the lakes or from the Kingfisher Café, which has a veranda and cosy indoor seating, offering visitors stunning lakeside views and delicious tea and cake.
Photo: Kingfisher Café, Ellie Dodson
What kind of wildlife can I see at Langford Lakes?
Langford Lakes is a wonderful place to spot otters, but is also a bird watcher's paradise. The four lakes and wet scrape provide a vital stopping off point for migratory birds and resident habitat for about 150 different bird species. Residents include kingfisher, water rail and gadwall. You may even spot some rarities on your visits, such as the osprey, the white-tailed eagle or the pectoral sandpiper.
In spring, watch for great-crested grebes shaking their heads in courtship. Reed warbler, waders and terns drop in on their summer migration. And as winter advances, an amazing array of wintering species arrive. Large flocks of lapwing can be seen flying around and feeding on the wetlands; shoveler and wigeon join the other ducks present all year round; and occasionally the endangered and secretive bittern pays a visit.
Photo: Great-crested grebe at Langford Lakes, Gary Mantle
How has Langford Lakes improved for wildlife over the years?
Since Wiltshire Wildlife Trust acquired the lakes in 2001, islands, ponds and wader scrapes have been created to provide habitat for birds such as redshank and sandpiper that probe the mud for food. The Trust also improved the 800m stretch of Wylye River for fish, designated a Special Area of Conservation, and a neighbouring field was transformed into the Great Meadow wetland in September 2012.
Photo: Langford Lakes, WWT
The Trust has more exciting wetland habitat improvements in the pipeline at Langford Lakes over the coming years, thanks to the Network for Nature project funded by National Highways, which focuses on improving, creating and restoring habitat that has been impacted by historic road building activity. In September, a reedbed was extended on Brockbank Lake, and future funded projects include a sand martin bank and new wet grassland that will support breeding birds.
