Spring is the best time to see Cetti's Warblers as the males become more preoccupied with singing and showing off than whether or not you can actually see them.

However, the last couple of weeks have seen visitors getting some of the most amazing shots I have ever seen of this increasing species.  The mild winter and early spring have certainly helped it thrive and we have over 30 singing males across the reserve…

Our wintering Curlew flock has nearly topped forty this season but they will soon be heading back north to their breeding areas.  This may be as close as the Suffolk and Norfolk Brecklands or further afield on a Pennine bog or a Scottish flow......

They are still coming in on most high tides although there are now only ten or so to be seen....

Snooze time (Seren Waite)

17-4-14

We now have our own organic jams and chutneys in the shop to go with the delicious coffee that arrived a week ago!  They are £3.50 a jar and all proceeds come to the RSPB...

I have sampled the coffee and the strawberry jam and can confirm that both go well with a good thick slice of toast in the morning!

Enjoy!   I certainly did!

25-4-14

Laurie and Val Bigg stumbled across a pair of mating Emperor moths this afternoon near the brambles just past the Shooting Butts Hide.

Coming so soon after the huge female that I caught on Friday night, it is a good sign that we will soon be finding caterpillers munching their way through young bramble shoots!

Look at those eyes!

16-4-14

 

 

We are still hopeful that our pair of Kingfishers that are nesting outside the Marshland Discovery Zone are still incubating.

The signs are good and Tom Bell has been a star in keeping an eye on these special birds. He has spent every available day off in the hide patiently watching and recording their every change over, food pass and lovers spat.

I suspect that sometime next week the eggs may hatch and at that stage…

I like Wheaters... still have not seen a good one this year and therefore a bit jealous of the five birds along the river wall this morning! The males are so dapper in their bandit masks and apricot flushes with bold upright postures.

Hopefully they will still be there when I go and have a look tomorrow morning before work!

Superb shots from Les Harrison...

The Grasshopper Warbler has been reeling again on and off today and a second bird has also been heard down by the turnstile gate up onto the river wall.  This is another traditional spot for this elusive species so may be worth a bit of time to see if he pops out like the centre ramp bird did for David Preston!

Never realised just how rich the eye colour is!

Six Yellow Wagtails were seen out on Aveley Marsh and the…

Perhaps it was not overly surprising that the first Hairy Hawker of the year was found, newly emerged by Jerry Hoare this afternoon. What with some butterflies and moths being on the wing over a month early too it makes you wonder what else this slightly wonky spring will throw at us....

15-4-14

Our Lapwings are currently sitting on a record number of nests inside the fox free zone and are giving no quarter with potential threats and are seeing off Carrion Crows, Magpies and of course dangerous Grey Herons.

Clive witnessed and filmed such a defensive attack last week.... such bravery against that huge pointy dagger of a bill!

www.youtube.com/watch

15-4-14

Clive Watts captured this beautiful ballad of Mute Swan courtship out on Purfleet Scrape yesterday afternoon....

Magical from start to finish....

www.youtube.com/watch

14-4-14

What a glorious day..... plenty of bird song out there and a few new migrants with two Greenshank, two Lesser Whitethroats and a wonderful array of butterflies with 14 species seen! Quite amazing for the date and includes our first Green Hairstreaks and a very early Painted Lady feeding with Peacocks on Hawthorn flowers in the car park.....

Lynn Noble took this great Green Hairstreak shot this lunchtime.

and Martin…

The pair of Mute Swans are still sitting on their clutch of eggs down at the Dragonfly Pool and Ellie Payne managed to see the pen turn the eggs on Friday afternoon. Getting more difficult to see just how many eggs she has but hopefully they will all hatch before the end of the month and we shall have cute cygnets to ooh and ahh over.

13-4-14

Last night we conducted a co-ordinated moth trapping session across the reserve using nine different traps at five different locations. being early April we did not expect a huge catch but as we have never trapped at this time of year there was plenty of opportunity to add a few new species to the reserve list.

I shall post a full list in due course but the highlights were undoubtedly ......

female Emperor

Twenty…

I am not sure if our Marsh Frogs are taking some sort of illegal stimulants but I am sure that they are getting bigger and bigger. Seren Waite watch this smart adult Grey Heron take on this behwmoth of an amphibian on Friday

It took some subduing but the Heron succeeded at last in mortally wounding its quarry and swallowed it head first!

12-4-14

On Thursday the first Large Red Damselfly of the season was seen. This is the first species to appear annually but the 10th of April is defintely an early date. Howard Statham caught this one sunning itself on some ancient blackberries in the woodland and it or another was seen here on Friday.

It will not be too long before the air is full of hungry odenata species chasing down other winged insect prey...

Bring it…

So here I am, it's 10pm and I am sitting in the wildlife garden with my moth trap waiting to see what comes in. It is only early April so our team of twelve mothers (that's mothers... not Mothers....) are not expecting anything earth shattering but as we have never trapped here in this season almost everything will be new for the reserve. So far we have definitely caught a Twenty Plume, a Ruby Tiger, an Early Thorn…

 Warming up the vocals is the order of the day and our Sedge Warblers are just starting to get into gear as the sun breaks through and the low, grey cloud dissipates. Before too long they will be giving it their all and belting out that crazy demented scratchy song before throwing themselves into the air for a dramatic finale of pretend parachuting...

 Wonderful shot from Jerry Hoare 11-4-14

... right... so that is your Earworm for the day set up for those who liked Steely Dan....

Our Grasshopper Warbler is still reeling on and off just outside the centre and David Morrison got some nice shots this morning from near the sign at the end of the exit ramp. A subtle bird with warm olive tones and a great attitude....

11-4-14

Hi everyone,

How are you?

So on Tuesday we had our first of this Easter holidays young persons wardening event.

So a while back in the office we were talking about stuff for teenager - who are largely an under represented group when it comes to events. We were talking about how we need to encourage those teenagers that are into wildlife - as they will be the conservationists of the future. We were talking about the fact…

Got in early (after leaving late) and had a woodland wander. Almost the first bird I cam across was a singing Grasshopper Warbler in the small hawthorns by the Bus Stop. It was singing intermitently but evetually showed quite well before skulking off with a flick of his tail. I managed to record a little bit of the song and I shall try and upload it later. A great start and a good early record for the reserve.

It soon…

Hi everyone -

Sorry to tell you but this weekends Kids Birdwatching Club has been cancelled. Sorry about that!

Keep an eye on the website for the list of events: www.rspb.org.uk/rainham

 Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

It was another frantic, family filled day on the reserve with many groups coming in to do the Easter Trail (did you know that the world's chickens lay 562 billion eggs between them every year??) and other activities that we have laid on.

The weather was actually glorious and the temperature had risen somewhat from the chill of Tuesday. Migrants were a little thin on the ground today but I could see three Marsh Harriers…

If only anybody else had been around to hear Tom Bell this morning when this wonderful fish catcher flew over the reserve at 8am.... fifteen minutes later Russ S and Dave McG had the same Osprey over the Ingrebourne Valley also heading steadily north west.

(Tom Bell)

and the same colour sky a short while later from Russ Sherriff...

Otherwise fairly quiet today in blustery westerly conditions (once again). A few…