Rainham Marshes

Just a friendly reminder that starting tomorrow, November 1st, 2023, the Reserve will be closing at 4 pm. Please make a note of this change in schedule. Thank you.

Looking for unique activities this October half-term? Join us at RSPB Rainham Marshes for fun and educational experiences. Book tickets at https://events.rspb.org.uk/rainhammarshes

Our winter hours will change from November 1st.

Our Highlights so far this month has been Hoopoe, 12 Glossy Ibis, A pair of Black-winged Stilts and Black tern

On the 7th of June the visitor centre and reserve will be closed due to staff training we will resume our normal working hours 9.30-5pm on the 8th of June. We thank you for your paitence and continued support. RSPB Rainham Marshes Team 

Volunteering Opportunities at Rainham Marshes

          We have volunteering opportunities at Rainham Marshes that suit everyone.

Our micro volunteering allows you to volunteer for a couple of hours a week, this would include opening and closing our hides. It would give you the opportunity to go round the reserve and open the hides for our visitors before they arrive or go round in the eventing to close the hides.

We also have…

We are excited to host our first Summer fair since pre-covid. 

We have pitches for hire, if you are interested in hiring a pitch please contact kirsty.scott@rspb.org.uk 

Come and explore Rainham Marshes with one of our guides, as we take you on a wonderful wildlife walk around the marshes. Every season sees a different cast of wildlife awaits you!

Rainham Marshes is an important area for wildlife, and a great place for visitors all year round - you can expect to see breeding wading birds and a variety of invertebrates in spring and summer. Also look out for lapwings, redshanks, wheatears…

We have some fun activities for all the family at Rainham Marshes during the half term

to book please visit 

Rainham Marshes (rspb.org.uk)

We apologise for the ongoing closure of the northern boardwalk. The decision to close was made in order to keep visitors safe, as the boardwalk has reached the end of its lifespan. A new Project Manager has now joined the team at Rainham and we are considering several options to reopening the site fully. We understand that the closure may cause frustration and we apologise that we cannot yet give a date for reopening…

Volunteering opportunities available

We have vacancies for new volunteers in multiple roles!

Do you want to be part of a great team, learn new skills and be part of a great charity? if you do then please speak to a member of staff or contact Kirsty.scott@rspb.org.uk

We are pleased to be starting a new weekend work party! If you would like to help nature and don’t mind some physical work, then this work party might be for you. You will get to meet new people, help nature and have go home knowing you helped nature.

If you are interested, please register your interest by following the link.

https://volunteer.rspb.org.uk/opportunities/36723-practical-reserve-work-rainham-marshes…

From Monday 26th of October the shop will be closed. We are currently in the process of relocating the shop upstairs in the visitor centre. We are expecting the work to take 4 days. We will update when the shop move has been complete.

The café will be closed on Monday 26th of October for maintenance, it will re-open the following day.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

As a mark of respect to our patron Queen Elizabeth Rainham marshes will be closed on Monday 19th September.  Our thoughts are with the royal family on the day of the Queens funeral.

Rainham marshes will reopen on Tuesday 20th September. We appreciate your patience and understanding

In honour of  our beautiful Queen Elizabeth .Our wildlife explorers group created this magnificent bug habitat. Named Bugingham palace. come and see it in the picnic area at the reserve 

The Highlight of August was the wryneck ,Plenty of visitors had the pleasure of seeing the wryneck along with some great images being taken.

We have had two spoonbill this month including the yellow flagged Dutch spoonbill.

There has been a great show of brightly coloured yellow wag tails

Wader numbers have not been great this month two Turnstone Spotted, Redshank and a Wood Sandpiper was the highlights.

The cattle…

Hi Everyone,

Woweee well July has been the hottest month RSPB Rainham Marshes has ever experienced. As I am sure you must be aware this has affected the Marshes. However we have survived one severe heatwave, and there may be more yet to come this year. It’s worth reflecting how fortunate we are to have been unscathed by the Wennington fire which blazed just a stone’s throw away from the reserve. Our thoughts go out to…

We are holding an optics demonstration weekend this weekend, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of July.

Further reductions in the price of selected RSPB spotting scopes.

• 82 HD scope with 25-50 zoom eyepiece, was originally £1299, now £800
• Harrier 80 ED scope with fixed 35x eyepiece was £449, now £249
• Harrier 60 ED scope with fixed 26x eyepiece was £399 now £199.
• Avocet 80 with 20-60x…

June Sightings Board:

June Highlights!

• Sanderling (2 June)
• Spoonbill x2 (4/5 June)
• Greenshank (4/5, 11 June)
• Grasshopper Warbler (5 June)
• Spotted Flycatcher (seen on and off throughout the month)
• Cuckoo (seen and heard most of the month)
• Little Ringed Plover (4/5, 8/9, 29 June)
• Great White Egret (10/11, 19 June)
• Little Egret (present most of the month, but on 18 June there were around 50 across the reserve with a majority…