• A productive day....

    Evening all.....   been a bit busy for updates today but suffice to say that it turned out pretty good considering I never went outside with two Bonxies on the river (before heading off to the Butts Scrape for a wash!), two kronking Ravens (thanks Julie) that spent quite a bit of time invisble on the ground and were usually only seen when they flew, male and female Marsh Harriers, Peregrine, bobbing Jack Snipe on Purfleet…

  • More Bonxie action....

    At times the Bonxies were quite showy especially as they bobbed out of the river on the tide, only to take off and head back up the Bay like some sort of piratical fly fishermen...

    www.youtube.com/watch.

    Some video from Pat Hart

    They even sent out the RNLI to sort out these marauders for trying to drown other passing birds! (Mark Vale)

    Bonxie and Black Terns

    and a lovely adult Little Gull.... all taken…

  • Murk, drizzle.... marvelous stuff!

    The last three days have been superb at Rainham with the horrible dank, wet conditions with an easterly breeze and low cloud driving some seabirds up the Thames for the first real occasion this autumn. Monday saw 68 Little Gulls all heading out of the river (probably after crossing over the country from the west coast) while a flock of 11 Great Skuas (I prefer to call them Bonxies - their Shetland name) circled up through…

  • Hot spot

    Brian Churches took this great shot of a huge Flesh Fly (probably Sarcophaga carnaria) sitting on a medium sized Lizard while out on the trail yesterday. These flies are only attracted to dead or decaying matter and this Lizard certainly does not look like it falls into either category.

    My only thought is that on a chilly afternoon this sunning lizard was actually warmer than the surrounding wood and the fly thought that…

  • Seals and sunshine...

    A sunny start and calm too.... wind getting up but at least there are some birds to watch as opposed to trying to find them sheltering out of the weather. Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel are all back out on the wing and the Stonechats are standing sentinel once again. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and her two commoner counterparts were seen in the woodland early doors by Nicole and out on the river there are currently…

  • Hot Food - coming soon!

    Hi everyone!

    There's some exciting new additions to our café menu!

    As of tomorrow the café will be making and serving some new hot dishes - including chilli on jacket potatoes and macaroni cheese!

      Here's the Catering Manager Caroline making macaroni cheese!

      Ooh they smell so good... The Education Officer, Emma, and I offered to test them and they're good!

     

      Mac and Cheese - new on the men…

  • Want to Work at Rainham Marshes - Assistant Catering Manager

    There's still a couple of days left to apply for our Assistant Catering Manager job here at Rainham Marshes!

    We need a highly motivated Assistant Catering Manager at our busy café within Rainham Marshes nature reserve.

    The ideal candidate will be experienced in assisting in the smooth running of a demanding, hands on, catering operation where customer service will be second nature for you. We are looking…

  • Singing in the sunshine...

    Autumn may have arrived with a bit of a bang this week with dropping temperatures, an easterly wind and much needed rain but it is sunny at the moment today and as I pulled in this morning two male Cetti's Warblers were engaging in a vocal battle from either side.  No two sound quite alike but there is no mistaking the second noisiest bird on the marsh..... oh and just for the record I reckon that the stroppy little…

  • A day in the life of an RSPB warden - Nicole's in the local paper!

    Morning!

     

    Nicole our Warden was interviewed for the Romford Recorder, one of our local papers.

      

    Fame at last!

     

    Nicole has worked here at Rainham since 2011 as the Warden. Our main objective at Rainham Marshes is to provide attractive breeding habitat to declining lapwings and redshank, and also suitable wintering habitat to large numbers of wildfowl and waders - so that means you'll often find her and Assistant…

  • The People of Rainham Marshes - Lucy Houliston

    Hello and good morning!

    How are you today?

    So, welcome to another "People at Rainham Marshes" blog post!

    There is more to a nature reserve than just the nature! There are more than 100 volunteers and staff that keep this fantastic nature reserve in shape! So this is where you come to find out more!

    This time we have Lucy Houliston - I'll let her tell you more...

     

    "I'm Lucy and I'm fifteen years old…

  • Help us clear the foreshore

    We need you!

    As you've probably seen the foreshore area collects rubbish after high tides. On Sunday 26 October we are going to be working with Thames21 and RSPB Gravesend Local Group to do a community clean-up of the foreshore - and we need you!

    Come along and help 9 am-1 pm!

     

    Join Thames 21 (the voice for London’s waterways, working with communities to improve rivers and canals for people and wildlife) for…

  • It's dead, Mrs Conehead!

    Ever wondered what the pointy thing was out the back end of some crickets?

    Only the female has one and it is called the ovipositor and she uses it to incise a slot into a piece of vegetation into which she will lay an egg.

    This one is a Long-winged Conehead and I reckon she has got things a bit wrong this time as that bit of bramble was old and dry and no good for laying into.

    4-10-14

     

  • Blooming Ivy

    Ivy is almost the last plant to star blooming in the autumn and its late nectar resource is invaluable to hungry late butterflies, flies and Honey Bees.  It is also the key plant for a new colonizer - the Ivy Bee....

    This cute little orange furry bee with a stripy rear end was discovered on the reserve for the first time last year and there seems to be even more protectively zooming around the huge clumps in the Cordite…

  • Gang Warfare

    It may be early October but Migrant Hawkers (and the odd Southern gem) are still out there chasing down other insects although I reckon that they no longer have to worry about aerial attacks from Hobbies as the majority of them will have now headed south.

    Close up (HTV)

    Mating pair of Migrants... (Tom Bell)

    Hanging Migrant (HTV)

    Hanging Southern... note the two ovoid lime-yellow patches on the upper body..…

  • Baby Boom...

    With a glorious September behind us it was not surprising that our Common Lizard population boomed. 2014 had been a poor year for them here and we reckon that many got flooded out and drowned during the very mild but incredibly wet winter.

    However in the last two weeks of the month there were Lizard families everywhere... along the boardwalk, on logs, piles of reeds, basking on anthills..... hopefully this will mean…