And a quick sightings update too from an avian point of view...

There were a few Firecrest sightings again aeound the car park and Mar Dyke area and a pair of Peregrines were having a tussle over head early doors while two Barn Owls and a Short-eared Owl entertained those who waited it out as dusk fell overlooking the Enclosed Bay...

Firecrest - Tom Bell

Barn Owl - Ian Plume

Well that was a different sort of day. I had been asked to take around three Doctors from the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine who have booked an early spring Masters student visit to conduct some work on Mosquitoes.

My job was to find places where they would be able to sample water for the various stages of Mosquito growth and possibly some spots where adults may be vaguely sitting out the cooler months…

This Autumn The National Lottery celebrates it 25 birthday. 

Since 1994 over half a billion pounds of National Lottery funding has been invested in over 9,200 projects to help people enjoy the great outdoors. We are one of those projects and are delighted to have been included in their Guide to 25 Amazing Outdoor Adventures to celebrate!

Check it out: http://www.nationallotterygreatoutdoors25.co.uk/

Rainham Marshes visitor…

There have been some great sightings so far in November with increasing numbers of Lapwing, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwits, Wigeon and Teal on the ever wettening marsh. Small groups of Redwings and Fieldfares have been seen along with migrant Blackbirds and Song Thrushes down and scoffing berries.

Blackbird - Tom Bell

Curlew - Bernard Bradshaw

Black-tailed Godwit - Ian Plume

Black-tailed Godwits - Joan Chatterley

A…

Afternoon all.. just a quick message to let you know that the shop will not open until lunchtime tomorrow (2nd November) due to staff shortages. Apologies for any inconvenience

Pond Dipping proved popular once again over the half term and on Tuesday we even had a special Bug Hunt day too. 

Phil went down and helped the ladies at the Woodland Discovery Zone and in the gardens and had a wild time grubbing under logs and swishing his net in the ponds for beetles and such like.

Here is short video from Kim Clark of some of the amazing wildlife they caught!

We have added an extra session on Sunday…

Paul Radford, one of our hard working Wardening Team has put together a few words on the ongoing reedbed management works out on the marsh...

Over to Paul:

It’s not unusual to see members of the Wardening Team covered in mud and stinking of ditch water during the extremely busy Autumn and Winter months.  However, 2019 is proving to be exceptionally busy, as management and support of contractors carrying out habitat…

If you are free on Thursday 7 November, 10 am-1 pm - we need help with a littler pick!

With the exceptionally high tides recently a huge amount of rubbish has washed up on the foreshore of the Thames on the River Wall section of the reserve.

 Picture by Howard Vaughan.

We need your help.

Join us on Thursday 7 November - meet other nice people and get your lungs pumped up with fresh air and enjoy the beauty of this particular…

Our bird feeders around the visitor centre are a big draw for both the public and the birds and our colony of nearly 200 House Sparrows is something that we are incredibly proud of having nurtured it from one solitary female to its current healthy state.

We have fed the birds here every single day since we opened on the 16^th November 2006 and topping them up is an important part of the day’s work.

Tony and Pat often…

The ever freshening easterly actually brought a few bits up the Thames today on the incoming tide and by the time it was nearly in we had seen four Common Scoter, three Red-breasted Mergansers and two beady eyed Goldeneye.  Anyone of these species here is a good day but all three together in the same scope scan was pretty cool.

female Merganser - Andy Tweed

There was plenty else to be seen with some good counts for the…

Phil has popped to see his Great Aunt in Southend today so the ever keen Doris has taken the opportunity to add another string to her proverbial volunteering role and is helping the café girls on another busy half term day.

The tills are a bit different on the café but Doris was quickly up to speed and making Lattes and Espressos for the punters before helping Wendy and Caroline in the masterful preparation of…

Doris headed down to the shop today with her newly acquired till skills and that helpful meet and greet smile.  Annie showed here how to use the scales to weigh the loose seed and give her some extra volunteer training on the nitty gritty of refunds and loyalty cards.

Meanwhile Phil was browsing the store and picking up an eclectic mix of gifts for the very extended family including the RSPB exclusive Monopoly for a…

Phil and Doris came in this morning to give me a hand with counting the geese on Purfleet Scrape as we all got in stupidly early despite the 'lay in option'...

Phil is still achy after yesterday's exertions (now that he has a limp, what with one leg being shorter than the other following his hip op) and will rest up and let Doris head out with Paul today to check the electric fences although she did promise…

It’s a bit wild out there so Howard decided it was the ideal day to get Doris started in her Centre Assistant role on Reception while Phil is out on the marsh volunteering with Paul. 

She has quite obviously been practicing her most engaging smile and has already got the Great Welcome sorted in her head.

All we need now is some visitors to venture into the reserve! It is so windy that a flock of Lapwings just blew…

Phil and Doris were almost first in this morning and have already been down for a walk around the woodland.

They never saw Rocky the Robin and his friends when they visited last October but this morning they both had a wondrous encounter with our bold little red breasted friend as he came to pinch a proffered meal worm.

They also saw quite a few Redwings, a dinky Goldcrest, 18 migrating Jackdaws and a dapper Jay flashing…

The poor visibility, murk, drizzle and rain quite literally dropped a wealth of waders and a few wildfowl onto our part of the Thames today.  While I was safely inside watching from the window, Niall and Andy were out most of the day diligently counting...

• RSPB Rainham Marshes: 470 Greylag Goose, 18 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 230 Canada Goose, 4 Egyptian Goose, 54 Shelduck, 94 Shoveler, 23 Gadwall…

What a gloomy day!

Doris decided to stay at home today and continue with knitting Christmas present scarves and let Phil out to play.

The Photographic Hide had already been hired out for the day so he decided to help Howard and Andy with a spot of gardening around the car park.  It was Andy’s first day volunteering too and Howard is still looking for more volunteers help to tackle the autumn and winter jobs ahead…

So you may remember that last October we were graced by the charming couple that are (and were) Phil and Doris.  They visited for a week and had a great time on the reserve where they did a bit of birding and lounged in the cafe and supped lattes and in Doris’ case, a box of red wine.  They even hired a bike and had a sneaky slide on the toddlers play area while no one was looking as well as stocking up early for…

Yesterday was all about a light easterly breeze and a constant stream of small birds and Woodpigeons heading south across the Thames and a movement of Jackdaws all heading west...

• RSPB Rainham Marshes: 168 Ring-necked Parakeet, 337 Jackdaw w, 156 Linnet s, 21 Goldfinch s, 22 Greenfinch s, 31 Chaffinch s, Lesser Redpoll s, 28 Reed Bunting s, 2 Yellowhammer s, 5 Corn Bunting s, 57 Skylark s…

17 October marks the #LetNatureSing takeover day - we want to get bird song everywhere, from workplaces to living rooms, and send a chirruping, chirping message to tell people in power we don’t want bird song to disappear.

We are listening - are you?

Keep reading for more pictures of the Rainham team trying to get a pictures where we are all looking in the right direction without blinking!

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Nature is in…

Sorry if it is a bit brief but been a long day and just got... I love the QEII Bridge!

Hello! I hope that you week has been going well.

I thought I would share some of the things that have been happening this week at Rainham Marshes.

Click on the title to see the whole blog post...

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Purfleet Scrape

There is water on the Purfleet Scrape!

All the rain has really helped, and the Wardening team have been doing a brilliant job making sure that the water we have is moved around to the right places (as…