It has been a lovely sunny week and the easterly breeze has brought us a few little tastes of autumn with small numbers of Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and Chaffinch on the move along with increasing numbers of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits building up on the marshes.

Cetti's Warblers are staking their winter territories and some of the migrant Chiffchaffs have also been singing a bar or two.  There are still Goldcrests to…

There have been quite a few Whinchats passing through this autumn and they have often provided some quality photographic opportunities for those with a little patience as they inevitably aim for the highest bit of vegetation from which to sally out for a snack...

Basil Thornton

Shaun Harvey

Alan Shearman

Stonechats are now arriving and a few small parties are to be found out on Aveley and Wennington. Always…

Fancy trying something a bit different? Volunteer with Active in Nature at Rainham Marshes! Our exciting Sport England partnership aims to encourage people to experience nature in new and active ways. We are provisionally providing three activities at Rainham Marshes – cycle hire, bouldering (3m high climbing boulders with a variety of graded routes) and running. This will give visitors a fantastic opportunity to…

September is the time for Kestrels here with all the local families coming to the reserve to hunt. I saw seven from the centre at the same time last week and one or two of them are following the tradition of being wonderfully approachable along the river wall.

Whether they will ever be as obliging as the temporarily one eyed Nelson from a few years ago remains to be seen.

In the meantime enjoy these cracking shots

Our first Hummingbird Hawkmoth of the season was seen on Friday doing what they do best on the Buddlia in the Cordite.  Chris Norwood got some great shots of this amazing little moth as it necatared feverishly.

To think that this would have come from the continent and flown across the North Sea.  The run of easterly winds that we have had suggested that we might get some of this autumnal migrants and they will always brighten…

Thanks to Jonathan Wasse for putting together a fine blog post on these well travelled, long lived birds.

A fine sight at Rainham during August was the gathering of 50 or so Black-tailed Godwits on Aveley Pools. Several were colour-ringed and some excellent data has been forthcoming. With thanks to all who have kindly helped in ascertaining the colour-ring combinations, and help in tracing their origins - Icelandic and…

With a good spell of nice warm weather, we have seen a pulse of big dragonflies on the wing with little packs of Migrant Hawkers patrolling the woodland paths, long bodied Southerns in the Cordite Store and even a belligerent Brown or two.

The smaller flying insect population has been taking a bashing from these aerial predators and they in turn have become prey for the Hobbies that are hunting the reserve on a daily…

Remember that drab grey 'unfinished' look pillar in the reception area?  I have been staring at that for nearly nine years and it has never looked even remotely attractive....

However, changes are afoot and after a tricky application of undercoat by Chris Campbell, we have now let the incredibly talented Richard Allen loose on it.

It is still a work in progress but I have been enjoying watching the red finned…

This autumn and winter you can come along to our brand new series of events: Talks on the Wild Side. On the last Friday of the month we shall be hosting an illustrated talk so why not come along and hear tales from some of our other reserves and adventures from far flung places - each talk will feature a different special guest speaker.

The doors will open 7 pm for 7.30 pm start, and finishing at about 9.30pm. There will…

An early stroll this morning around the reserve on a glorious early autumn morning was quite productive. The playground and woodland was full of warblers and I was lucky enough to find both Pied and Spotted Flycatchers in the Cordite.  I stayed with the roving tit flock for a while but could not find anything else of note.

Spot Fly (Pete Jackson)

Two young Green Woodpeckers played hide and seek in the chestnuts and…

Our RSPB Site Manager Andrew Gouldstone wanted to share with you a little bit about our breeding wader success this year...

 Take it away Andrew:

Anyone who is a regular visitor to Rainham is likely to have overheard lots of talk from staff and volunteers, each year, about our breeding waders.

But why are these so important ? Any why do we get so excited about the excellent results that we have had here in recent…

Get active in nature at Rainham Marshes!

Sign up to our first running session at Rainham Marshes, with our wonderful RSPB running guide Jen, on Saturday 26 September. There are two running distances available - 3km or 5km - with stops along the way to take in the wonderful views and the sounds of nature. Meet at 9:30 am for the 5km run and 11:00am for the 3km run.

Enjoy the refreshments in the café after your work…

Just a quick thank you to the staff, volunteers, stall holders and miscellaneous other friends who helped make the fair at Rainham such a success.

Such a superb atmosphere...

The stalls, food, massages, singing and banter were superb and the number of visitors wondrous on a glorious blue skied autumn day. A great day also in the shop and one of the busiest ever in the cafe.... oh and there were some birds too with Spotted…

Historically speaking the reserve has always been important for bees of many species. One of the most important is a little stripy one that emerges in the late summer and times its appearance with the flowering of the Sea Aster down on the saltmarsh and hence it's English name of Sea Aster Mining Bee. Colletes halophilus is nationally very rare with just a few scattered coastal sites in which to find them. This Red…

There's been a couple of post recently about the woodland path, but things are changing quickly!

We have a section of the woodland that has been closed (the bit that I've circled on this map)

We've been removing sections of the boardwalk that have started to rot (ready re-build at a later date), and we are creating and extending the gravel path (this week we had 40 tonnes of gravel chipping delivered…

You may have noticed that there's a section of the woodland that has been closed (the bit that I've circled on this map)

The fabulous work party team have been working hard to replace sections of the boardwalk - this is a big task!

We've been removing sections of the boardwalk that have started to rot (ready re-build at a later date), and we are creating and extending the gravel path (this week we are expecting…

It's been cleaning season - we have to be careful about what we do out on the nature reserve in spring and summer due to the breeding wildlife.

So now we're turning slowly to autumn it's that time when we can get out and about and do those things that we haven't been able to...

The fabulous Thursday Work Party team of volunteers deep cleaned the Shooting Butts Hide! What started as a quick job to clean…

Cycle Hire... Coming soon!

Adventure along the river wall and beyond...

Explore the reserve and further afield with our new cycle hire scheme. Stop along the way to take in the fantastic views and listen to the bird song. Look out at the abundance of wildlife including lapwings, seals, marsh harriers and a variety of plants and insects!

Prices: £10 for adults and £5 for under 18s (subject to exceptions). Local…