On Wednesday 27th December - we finished the water pipit's migration!

It took a total of 15 days for us to walk 536 miles! Incredible. Thanks to all those who contributed steps and got a bit more active in the rainy, cold December and what a fantastic achievement!

The Steps Series is a set of challenges – everyone can help us walk or run the same distance as a migratory route of one of Rainham’s wildlife visitors, or even distances to places - all your steps can count!
Rainham Marshes is a great place to explore - being active for even 10 minutes per day is really beneficial. If you are exploring, or trying to reach a fitness goal you will be doing something to keep you active - one loop of the main trail is about 5,000 steps!

For this first series we matched the distance that a water pipit flies on its migratory route, from the Alps to Rainham Marshes (536 miles or 1,179,200 steps)

Water pipits are scarce winter visitors to Rainham, they are a small bird that is about the same size as a sparrow. They visit the reserve from the mountains of central Europe. This time of year they have brown on the head and back, and a streaky pattern on the breast. In the spring the head goes a lovely shade of steely blue and they get a nice pink breast too before they head off to breed in the Alps (which is 536 miles away!)

Rainham Marshes is a fantastic place for water pipits – you can often see them out on the muddy edges of the pools where they hunt for insects. In winter we manage the pools and waterways on site to make them good places for wildlife; the muddy edges are good for birds looking for insects in the mud, and the open water is good for a variety of ducks and geese.

Water pipit - Russ Sherriff

We will be starting another challenge on the 1st January to complete a black-tailed godwit migration back to Iceland! We will be going over double what the water pipit's migration was and hopefully if we get lots of beautiful days, it won't take us too long!