Our woodland photography hide is now complete – it has been a bit of a work in progress whilst we completed the installation of a reflection pool, but this is now finished. Our thanks to the volunteer photographers who have helped provide advice and to our volunteer work party for constructing the pool.

Now it is finished, the pool should enable close up shots of woodland birds drinking or bathing, and with an interesting…

Afternoon all.. sad news from the South Essex Wildlife Hospital. They did all they could for 1K our Kestrel but she lost her fight I'm afraid after being taken into care on Friday. Although she looked intact she actually had a coracoid fracture in her wing where it enters the body and had obviously then struggled to find enough prey to keep her body weight up.

She was born and ringed near Guildford in June and…

Big Garden Birdwatch three day weekend is here!

Around 500,000 people took part in the last birdwatch. That's a LOT of birds counted! Now it's your chance to join in, and count the wildlife that's counting on you.
You can go on line here to submit your sightings but all that is required is to get out there, clean and top up your feeders, put out some fresh water and sit back and watch for an hour...

Best…

Children at Rainham Marshes David McHugh (rspb-images.com)

Volunteering taster days or ‘give-it-a-go’ days are designed to allow you to try volunteering in a particular activity, to see if you like it! There’s no commitment to continue after this day if you don’t feel it’s for you (though we hope you do!).

This taster day (on Thursday 15 March, 10am-2 pm) offers you the opportunity to find…

Please see this RSPB Love Nature facebook post for the latest update on the petition to license driven grouse shooting...

Licensing will help end poor practice on uplands managed for driven grouse shooting, which can entail environmental damage and illegal killing of raptors, such as Hen Harriers.

With so much lovely water on the marsh it is not surprising that we have a splendid number of duck sploshing around. Wigeon have topped the 1000 mark for the first time in several years and there are good flocks of Shoveler and Teal with a smattering of Gadwall, Mallard and elegant Pintail.

A cracking female Wigeon - Peter Woods

male Pintail - you can even see the purple gloss on the head - Alan Reynolds

A few…

Great news from our catering team! I will hand you over to Caroline Drewitt our Catering Manager...

Our Café has been awarded a Silver Award from the Soil Association.  We have progressed from the Bronze level in the Food For Life scheme by continuing to increase the amount  of freshly prepared meals on site to over 75% while moving towards a more environmentally sustainable ethically sourced menu.

We have been…

Art in the Purfleet Hide:

Do you fancy exhibiting your art or photography in the hide for a week this year? There are still plenty of spaces left so ask at reception for more details or email Howard at howard.vaughan@rspb.org.uk 

There is no cost or commission but if you have a good week and would like to make a donation that would be great!

And as for topic... it's up to you... it does not have to be reserve or even…

Frampton Marsh nature resesrve is the next stop in out latest Step Series: black-tailed godwit.

To get from Rainham Marshes to Frampton it's 530,200 steps or 241 miles.

RSPB Frampton Marsh nature reserve is in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Blessed with a variety of freshwater habitats, Frampton Marsh provides close views of the abundant birdlife of The Wash, one of Europe's most special places for wildlife. Avocets,…

We are part way through the second challenge in The Steps Series.

The Steps Series is a set of challenges – everyone can help us walk or run the same distance as a migratory route of one of Rainham’s wildlife visitors, or even distances to places - all your steps can count.

At the moment  we are walking the black-tailed godwit challenge - we have to get a black-tailed godwit back to Iceland - 1369 miles…

We are walking through our second challenge in The Steps Series.

The Steps Series is a set of challenges – everyone can help us walk or run the same distance as a migratory route of one of Rainham’s wildlife visitors, or even distances to places - all your steps can count.

At the moment  we are walking the black-tailed godwit challenge - we have to get a black-tailed godwit back to Iceland! It's over double…

Good morning,

I just wanted to share some of the recent wildlife highlights over the last couple of days:

There has been a few wader species: black-tailed godwit, ruff, avocet, dunlin, ringed plover, common sandpiper, golden plover, and lapwing.

Wildfowl have been showing well: wigeon, teal, pintail, shoveler, pochard, shoveler, mallard and gadwall.

There have been a few bird of prey sightings too: red kite (flying…

Paul is one of our amazing running leaders - this week we welcomed a new group of runners along to our Learn to Run course. Paul is here to tell you a little about how the course is going:

Our run leaders Robyn and Paul after their Christmas Eve run

I am delighted to announce that last Sunday, on a cold and windy, although gloriously bright morning, 7 Rainham harrier chicks (our running group is called the Rainham…

Site Manager, Andrew Gouldstone, is here to tell you about the water onsite!

The reserve gets wetter…

At last, recent rain (and some nearly festive snow) has started to make the reserve look like a marsh again.

I’m sure you’ll recall how dry the Purfleet scrape was back in October, and also how dry the previous two winters have been.

The effect of this has been reduced wintering bird numbers, and a…

I thought  I would do a little update about some of the wildlife that has been seen onsite over the last couple of days!

Over the past few days we have had very high tides - and it has been a bit breezy...

Tony O'Brien took these fantastic shots of the wild looking River Thames on Thursday and Friday:

The weekend wasn't quite as blowy so we had quite a few different wildlife highlights...

The wil…

Back in November Robyn posted a guest blog about the foreshore clearance event arranged by Gray's Beachcombers and Thames21. To read about that event click here.

The next clearance has been announced and we wanted to let you know more details, take it away Robyn:

On 25 November we went over to the concrete barges to clean up the area of foreshore - this area gets a lot of rubbish washed up from the capital. 38 volunteers…

Please find below a guest blog from Bill Gush, Regional Director, Land and Water Services Ltd.

An update on recent developments and future plans for the Rainham Silt Lagoons.

The silt lagoons at Rainham have long been a draw for wildlife, and due to their attraction to wetland birds and other wildlife, they were included in the Inner Thames Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The silt beds were formed…

Robyn, our Active in Nature officer has been planning away and getting ready for a new event - here she is to tell you all about it!

Hi everyone!

Have you committed to your New Years resolutions yet? We have a few spaces remaining on our Learn to Run Course and only a few more days to confirm your spot so don't delay and give us a call!

Please share the event with anyone who might be interested, Rainham Marshes…

On 1 January we launched our second challenge in The Steps Series. We got the water pipit back to the Alps, now we have to get a black-tailed godwit back to Iceland! It's over double the distance at 1369 miles equating to 3,011,800 steps! How long do you think it will take us? The water pipit took 15 days so we are hoping we can reach Iceland in a month.

Can you help RSPB Rainham Marshes keep up with this magnificent…

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope you had a wonderful time over Christmas and all the best for the new year!

How is it 2018 all ready? We've been having lots of conversations today about how time whizzes past, and what we have planned for the year to come. We were also talking about resolution... do you set yourself a resolution for the New Year?

A quick poll of the Rainham Marshes staff and volunteers found that…

On Wednesday 27th December - we finished the water pipit's migration!

It took a total of 15 days for us to walk 536 miles! Incredible. Thanks to all those who contributed steps and got a bit more active in the rainy, cold December and what a fantastic achievement!

The Steps Series is a set of challenges – everyone can help us walk or run the same distance as a migratory route of one of Rainham’s wildlife visitors…