Rainham Marshes

A message from Annie - our Retail Manager

Looking after the birds in your garden has possibly never been more important from a mental wellbeing point of view especially with so many of us sensibly house bound.  We keep being asked where do we now get our bird food from now that the RSPB reserve shops, garden centres and big hardware stores are closed?

Well, that’s nice and easy. The RSPB online shop is still operating…

Today was my first visit to the reserve in nine days.  I am now part of the team rota with Jamie and Andrew to solo visit and check on the fundamental aspects of the site such as building and hide security and electric fence checking as well as looking after our feeders around the Centre that are so important to our thriving House Sparrow population.

I arrived at 9.30 this morning after a bizarrely empty drive in from…

Well, with all the work I have been doing this week in my North Kent garden now that I can't get to our lovely reserve it has not been surprising that I have encountered an amazing amount of wildlife whilst toiling in the sunshine!

My bird list is still rather paltry with just 29 seen and heard but it has included daily Sparrowhawks, Buzzards and Mediterranean Gulls which arrive this time of year to breed on some…

I would imagine, like me, you have been having a bit of cupboard stock take over the last week, digging out all those ancient and forgotten tins of oddities like pink grapefruit slices and marrow fat peas that you inexplicably bought in the distant past.

But do not throw the cans in your recycling bin!

Upcycle them into homes for wildlife.

Bee or bug house:

• Use the contents of the elderly tinned product (or not as the…

Just a quick good morning post.  Needless to say that Recent Sightings are somewhat sparse on the ground what with the reserve being closed but one or two of the locals are still safely taking their exercise along the river wall and reported some great Marsh Harrier activity out over Wennington with at least three males and four females sparring and engaging in lots of display.  Let's hope that they settle down for another…

Following the latest clear instructions from the Government for us all to remain at home apart from a limited number of allowed activities, we are closing our reserve to visitors until further notice.

 

This means we will close our car park, toilets, main trail, hides and playground to the public. These measures are on top of the existing closure of our visitor centre, cafe and shop. The South Essex resersves will also be…

Early morning update, Rainham Marshes car park and main trails now closed. Full update later. Stay safe everyone!

We have made the difficult decision to close the main trails at Rainham Marshes in an effort to help restrict the spread of coronavirus. The car park and River Wall trails will remain open if you would like to get out into nature and enjoy a walk, this will take place from Tuesday 24 March.

The safety of our visitors, volunteers and staff are paramount – please follow social distancing guideline of staying 2 m away from…

From Howard:

Another day in the garden...some more spring tidying, frog rescuing, dead fence making and hopeful sky watching...

www.youtube.com/watch

One rescued common frog:

If you would like some information about wildlife gardening you can have a look at the RSPB website: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/ 

From Howard:

Afternoon all... Been out the garden the last two days. A few little jobs that you may also be able to do. The wildlife still needs us!

www.youtube.com/watch

You may have seen my last post (you can see it here). We have made the difficult decision to close our Rainham Marshes visitor centre, café, shop, and hides to visitors. We want help you enjoy nature at this time, which is why we are keeping our trails and car park open at no charge.

Please read this whole post for full details of everything you need to know!

https://youtu.be/Lfevu_EZtWs

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Where can I walk?

You can…

Following the latest government advice we have made the difficult decision to close our Rainham Marshes visitor centre, café, shop, and hides to visitors. This will take effect from 5 pm on Friday 20 March. This is to prioritise the health and welfare of our staff, volunteers and visitors. (Keep reading for more details about trail access - click on the headline to see the whole post.)

These are difficult and unsettling…

Yesterday I put out a blog here, talking about the sightings. Some of the highlights were the white storks, short-eared owl and barn owl.

Some of our wonderful visitors took some cracking shorts and I had to share!

Tricia Cambell took these pictures of the two storks flying around the reserve:

Jim Cambell took some lovely shots of the owls:

 Barn owl

 Short-eared owl

Fabulous pictures - thank you for sharing Tricia…

Pat is one of our volunteers - yesterday while he walked around the reserve he saw the following:

RSPB Rainham Marshes - Friday 13th March

Highlights: -Pintail, Water Rail, Great Crested Grebe, Avocet, Curlew, Snipe, White Stork, Marsh Harrier, Short-eared Owl, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Kestrel, Bearded Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Rock Pipit

Total Species experienced 63 - Pheasant, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan…

Afternoon all,

Just a quick update for wildlife sightings - 

The stars of the last couple of days have been a couple of white storks! They were first spotted on Wednesday 11, and we have just been watching the two flying around over the reserve.

The two firecrests are still showing nicely in the woodland. 

Barn owl, short-eared owl, marsh harrier, sparrowhawk, kestrel and peregrine have all been seen.

The wader number…

Rainham Marshes has a  Facebook and Twitter page – you can find us @RSPBRainham

We’ll be sharing news, events and amazing wildlife updates from the reserve and other nearby RSPB reserves including South Essex, Wallasea, Old Hall and North Kent. Please share to spread the word.

Thank you so much to everyone that headed out onto the foreshore of the River Thames for our Plastic Pollution Beach Clean.

We were lucky with the weather and the team managed to fill a whole skip!

The skip was provided by Ahern - they are a fantastic comprehensive waste management service for East London and South Essex.

Not only do they hire skips - once they collect it they will then separate and recycle appropriately…

If you are free on Friday 6 March, 10 am-1 pm - we need help with a littler pick!

With the exceptionally high tides recently a huge amount of rubbish has washed up on the foreshore of the Thames on the River Wall section of the reserve.

 Picture by Howard Vaughan.

We need your help.

Join us on Friday 6 March - meet other nice people and get your lungs pumped up with fresh air and enjoy the beauty of this particular river urban…

The shop will be closed tomorrow, Monday 2 March. 

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Here is a quick summary of the month - from Howard:

February is often the coldest and best winter month but not this year. The wet, windy westerly weather has prevented any immigration and duck and wader numbers remained where they were in December. A Jack Snipe was seen over one of the mammoth tides on the 10th and two Ruff were still about. Gull watching did provide us with some more Caspian action and a fine adult…

Afternoon all... Some access info for the up and coming windy weekend...

It looks at the moment that we might get away with keeping the circular trail open tomorrow (via the outer loop) so with the boardwalk work still underway it means that an anti-clockwise route is available with the exit through the turnstile and back along the river wall.

However, there is a lot of water on site and the paths are very wet in several…

After the storm over the weekend there has been some impact on the reserve. 

Currently there is only access to the Purfleet Hide. They will be no access to any other part of the inner circular trail although the river wall will still be available for those who want to blow away the cobwebs.

The visitor centre, cafe and shop remain open regardless.

Our teams have headed out to try to fix the storm's affect - we hope to…

Weekend access update: 15-16 February

Due to the continuing stormy conditions and increasing wind from imminent Dennis I can now confirm that there will only be access to the Purfleet Hide this weekend. They will be no access to any other part of the inner circular trail although the river wall will still be available for those who want to blow away the cobwebs.

I have also cancelled the Kids Birdwatching Club for Saturday…

The Last Week on the Ranch…

Wet, wild, windy, noisy, ear rattling, building shaking…  just some of the words to describe many of the days since last Sunday morning when Ciara hit.

Birdwise it may have appeared somewhat quiet with most species staying as low to the ground as possible in the gale force weather.  The Marsh Harriers and gulls appeared to enjoy the conditions and brave searching amongst the…