I shall be in reasonably early tomorrow so we shall be opening at 0730 or there abouts. The Baillon's Crake has been showing on and off all day from the Butts Hide and most people got to see it for a few seconds at least. Normal closing time of 5pm tomorrow so that I can get some rest before the 0500 opening on Saturday morning!

Hobbies were superb today with some magnificent flybys that were often close enough to…

13-9-12

Found a brand new, just hatched brood of Little Grebes the other day down at the MDZ. They were uber cute and allowed me to lay on my belly and get real close without disturbing them.  we reckoned on 35 territories around the trail this year with at least two or three broods per pair that is a bucket full of grebes! However, it would seem that the mortality rate is pretty higher or we would be treading over fluffy piles…

Evening all. . .another long day but the majority of visitors today managed to catch up withour little skulking friend. We stayed open till 2030 and it showed very well during the last hour of light much to the delight of all who had waited. One chap had visited on all five days and walked about 18 miles and waited countless hours before finally seeing it this evening!

We shall be opening the reserve at 0730 tomorrow…

Our Iceplants (Sedum spectabilis 'Matrona' before you ask...) are now in full flower and are attracting hundreds of bumblebees of several different species. Now if any of you know me you will know that I have a problem with bumblebee id.

I just cannot keep those sequences of black, yellow, orange and white in my head! Some I am ok with but others just leave me in a right tizz!

So if you want bees.... plant this…

Our obliging Kestrel has been showing very well again and Shaun Harvey got these wonderfully intimate shots as she had a dust bath on the path before flying off to catch her lunch which she ate in front of him!  At least she is easier to see that the Baillon's Crake!

12-9-12

Just a quick note to say that the reserve will open at 0930 as normal tomorrow (12th) but will then stay open till dark to allow visitors the chance to look for the Baillon's Crake from the Butts Hide again. We shall operate a dawn till dusk service again this weekend. More details to follow.

Oh and yes the Crake has been showing well again on and off today...

(Jono Lethbridge)

11-9-12

Great Spotted Woodpeckers are a regular feature on the reserve but not usually all the way out by the Shooting Butts! Dave Morrison found this one poking around in the early morning sunshine on the huge number 8! Cannot imagine that he found too much for his breakfast!

11-9-12

I wonder just how many Darters and Migrant Hawkers there are over the marsh at the moment. Certainly hundreds, if not more. A couple of late Emperors have been seen and Banded Demoiselles have again visited in the last week.

Common Darter (Tony Coombs)

Female Emperor eating a Common darter (Jerry Hoare)

Migrant Hawkers (Tony Coombs)

and some more usuful handy hawker hints from Jerry Hoare

11-9-12

Strangely enough there was not a lot of time for blogging over the weekend so here is a little roundup of the incredibly successful Insect Afternoon walk on Saturday when temperatures were not far of 30c. Bit too warm for most critters but we persevered and everyone had a great time. Annie, Chris and I managed to keep a good crowd entertained with some good hoverflies, spiders, caterpillars and a few bugs while crickets…

Fortunately the Baillon's Crake was still around today and showed three times up until 1430 but not again afterwards to the best of my knowledge. There were a few other bits and bobs around including 22 Black tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, 3 Greenshank, 14 Snipe, 4 green Sandpiper and 2 Common sandpipers while 5 Hobbies entertained once again over the Purfleet Scrape area.

Access this week is likely to be normal hours…

So here I am on Monday evening after probably the longest weekend I have ever had the pleasure to do on the reserve and with about 1000 people through the doors there was a fantastic vibe about the place with the ultra rare Baillon's Crake and some glorious sunshine making the place hum with activity. Have a look at the forum post from Splatsworth to see what I mean.  The volunteers were on excellent form with some…

Just a quick note to say that I shall be keeping the reserve open till about 8pm again this evening to give people the best chance of connecting with the Baillon's Crake.  Good luck.

Well done Martin Blow..... just desserts after ten hours in the hide yesterday and four today...

9-9-12

Well, yesterday was quite a day with a 4am start for the early birders to try and see Marianne's cracking Baillon's Crake. Those waiting quietly were rewarded by excellent views in the early morning light. However, it never showed again all day despite the diligence of the waiting crowd. We stayed open till 8pm to no avail but everyone seemed strangely light hearted and as i type this many have already already returned…

Bit of a more complicated story than I have time for now but the long and short of it is that Marianne Taylor found a juvenile Baillon's Crake yesterday afternoon on the reserve feeding in front of the Butts Hide. A bit of late evening patience was rewarded and the bird showed well enough to collect a full suite of plumage features.  As such (and with a plan of attack for today duly hatched) we put the news out.  It…

Amongst other things today I had a really great Common Buzzard just over the centre mid morning thanks to a shout from Pete Hale. A very smart juvenile bird (no dark terminal tail band) that seemed a little perplexed as to why the two Jackdaws were giving it grief...

Surprisingly these were taken by me....

and just the one Marsh Harrier today spiralling high over the silts so here are some images of the two juveniles…

Our Hobbies were even better today and at least ten were hawking hawkers all day over the marsh with the usual not quite so agile Kestrels. Awesome views and plenty of prey to chose fro once again as they feed up before heading south to Africa for our winter months.

(Mark Hart)

the stoop...

A pause in the action...

which one shall I eat first?

Will start with the right foot...

Images by Dave McGough who…

...and as promised here are the shots that Charles henry took of our Spotted Flycatchers in the woodland on Monday afternoon. Great stuff.... No sign since though so they moved through pretty quickly..

6-9-12

A fairly quiet day out on the reserve but a great walk nonetheless with epic views of Hobbies catching hawkers and two juvenile Marsh Harriers hunting together over the pools. A juvenile Garganey and seven Wigeon showed well and the baby Great Crested Grebe chick is still doing well. Six Yellow Wagtails headed over along with several very high Swallows and at along last I added Whinchat to my Rainham year list! Whimbrel…

5-9-12

Three summers ago something amazing happened along the Thames coastal marshes when the presence of a small number of a very rare dragonfly were discovered. Up until then there had only been two records of Southern Migrant Hawker in the UK and here they were breeding on the south Essex Marshes at Benfleet Downs. Since then they have been seen at our nearby reserves on both sides of the Thames and this year have appeared…

Well, things certainly warmed up this afternoon after the dank start that I had and the sky was full of more Migrant Hawkers than I care to imagine. At one stage from the end of the ramp there must have been over 50 in view at all heights as the zoomed around looking for other insect prey. With them were a couple of huge Brown Hawkers, several Southerns, countless Darters and amazingly both male and female Banded Dem…

There are still spaces available on the next three Bat Walks on Tuesday (tomorrow!) 4th, Friday 21st and Friday 28th September.  So if you fancy the chance to listen to our very healthy bat population please give 01708 899850 a ring to book your place now!

(Stephen Roberts)

3-9-12

Early morning once again find me sitting on a bench in the Cordite Store woodland waiting for 'interesting things' to happen. There is a distinctly autumnal feel today with low cloud and hazy light and the fact that both Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting have flown over high hints that things are on the move. Robins are singing all around and have moved into melancholy mode while there seems to be more than usual ticking…

After a little chat with Simon Barnes last week I was pleasantly surprised to find the following piece in The Times this Saturday...

So now you know what I have planned for next year.... and it is not likely to be just spring but could be done at anytime of year so watch this space...

2-9-12