My day started wonderfully well and as I stepped out of my car this morning, I was greeted by the howeet tuc tuc of a Redstart calling from the hedge. A Robin took offence and soon booted it out giving me good views of that slate blue back and fiery red tail. A real treat and always a special bird to get on spring passage. Skylarks were singing and Blackcaps were singing energetically from the Mardyke.

The rain closed…

 Following on from my earlier post about mimics we have found another with a large species of Sawfly that was seen by Lawrence Rogers at the weekend in the wildlife garden.

It goes by the name of Abia sericea and lte larva can be found sitting openly on Scabious plants between June and September which we have in the dry wildflower bed so hopefully we shall be seeing more of this scarce species.

It resembles a fat stripy…

There are many mimics in the insect world and at Rainham we have our fair share of those that try very successfully to pass themselves of as Honey or Bumbebees, Wasps or even Hornets.

The furry Bee Fly (Bombylius major) is one such species and we have seen plenty of this smart mimic in recent days...

Hovering Bee Fly (Lawrence Rogers)

Many species of Hoverfly are if anything even better at deception.... We have already…

It's Howard's  birthday today!

He is such a star we all wanted to wish him the very best of birthdays! We love you Howard!

Happy birthday from everyone at Rainham!

All around the reserve there are Wrens.... never still, seldom quiet, they are always on the go.... checking under leaves and in nooks and crannies searching for a snack and many will now have nests on the go, some with chicks already waiting for a beakful of insects.

We have found a couple of nests already including this one that Jerry Hoare spotted on Thursday

while Jim Willett caught this little chap with some…

Sometimes a normal colour name is just not enough.... green??? pah!! Call that green!  Have a look at this beauty.....

Looks at me ! (Jim Willett)

The French for Greenfinch is Verdier which sounds wonderful.....

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From what I hear it was a fairly nice day on the reserve with birds and insects to distract people on the trails. The first Common Terns of the year were seen on the Thames with five patrolling our stretch while two Red Kites passed through along with our other usual raptors.

The Kingfishers are looking settled and I reckon that they may well be incubating now so I reckon that they may hatch sometime the week after Easter…

This huge beast somehow had into the downstairs toilets (I suspect with childish hands) and had spent the night drying out.... Tony the cleaner was somewhat perturbed to find this beautiful frog when doing his rounds before we opened. It was amazingly sticky when I rescued it but had to get a shot before I let him escape into the ditch so I lay down and managed to take a pic before leapt back into the joyous embrace of…

Looking for something to do over the Easter holidays?

Here's some ideas (click on the title for more information):

For kids/ families:

Easter Eggstravaganza - free family fun

Head out on to the reserve and find the clues around the site - can you work out the answers to the Easter questions? Pick up an adventure trail sheet from reception and try and find all the clues - it's available until Wednesday 30 …

Afternoon everyone,

How are you all?

If you've been over to the reserve today you may have seen something interesting/ unusual!

We've had some filming onsite!

The crew have been on the sea wall with pretend ambulances and more!

We'll give you more details soon!

Lapwings can get very stroppy when they are breeding and it is not unusual for the males to exert some of their energies on us humans wandering by along the trails. They descend on whooshing wide wings, performing mad switchback moves and making that weird mechanical, rasping call that gives them one of their old names of Peewit.

Focusing in on Michael Frankling below!

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A fair selection of waders were seen during the month including the wintering Spotted Redshank, Grey plover, Avocet, nearly 40 Curlew, three Ruff and a Jack Snipe. The first Little Ringed Plovers arrived on the 21st and Green and Common Sandpipers were new in on the 29th. Lapwings and Redshank are settling down nicely and hopefully our duck and grebes will also fair well in the fox free zone.

Punky Grebe (Tony Orwell…

Our numerous pairs of Little Grebes are settling down to breed and it is quite easy to find their marshy nests close to the boardwalk as you walk the trails. Sometimes they will stay put and hope that you have not noticed them, watching you with beady chestnut eyes while on other occasions they panic, leap of the nest with a splash and then hastily cover the pearly white almost spherical eggs with weed before retreating…

Early spring is probably the best chance of catching up with our normally elusive Cetti's Warblers. The males are a lot more obvious as they proclaim their territories and sometimes perch fully in the open to belt out that amazing song.

(Michael Frankling)

and a corker from Tony Orwell too

As the leaves appear things get trickier so pay a visit now and see if you can see one of the 32 males across the site…

It wish that this post was actually entitled Hoopoe.....  but you can't have everything!

Took this shot the other night of an 'interesting' deposit on one of the benches...

It was dry and crumbly and looked like a skinny cigarette butt but who left it?

A closer inspection revealed the dessicated remains of countless ants inside it... just undigestible husks. The culprit was nearby laughing at us and the…

It turned out to be quite a good afternoon over the hightide with a nice scattering of interesting waders out on the pools. Four smart chestnut Black-tailed Godwits settled in for a kip with 36 Curlews while a single Ruff and our over wintering Spotted Redshank also put in an appearance with the latter showing well from the end of the ramp.

You can even see where 'Spotty' is just starting to blacken up for the su…

Last night I went for a walk around the reserve after work and there was still enough warmth in the air to give me good views of various insects that were still on the wing. Butterflies had been great during the day with Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tort, Small White, Brimstone and the first Speckled Woods and Orange Tips of the year.

A few Peacocks were still out basking and I also saw a couple of Brimstones but I will…

Over the last few weeks, we have had several remote camera traps out in the middle of Aveley Marsh.  We have been using them to ascertain whether we have any foxes inside the electric fence and I am pleased to report that we are now confident that we have a fox free zone.  If, however, you see a fox inside please do let a member of staff of volunteer know as soon as possible.

Our cameras also pick up other wildlife including…

The pair of Mute Swans on the Dragonfly Pool have been sitting for a while now.  If the full clutch is in the nest by now then we may seen cygnets by Easter...

Fingers crossed....

Lovely shot by Rachael Webb

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