2018 is coming to an end with a dull, grey but bird filled day.  The marsh is nice and wet and covered in duck and Lapwings and the Marsh Harriers and Peregrines have been taking advantage of the various food options!

The Short-eared Owls were up and about today too at the end of the river wall and our usual winter specials of Bearded Tits, Water Pipits, Ruff and Redwings should all be available to kick start 2019 in just…

Sorry for the lack of posts but it has been a very busy few days on the reserve with people visiting to walk of the festive excesses!

And so, the last three days... some highlights

Saturday 29th December 2018

• RSPB Rainham Marshes; f Merlin, 38 Pintail, 122 Shoveler, 18 Tufted Duck, 32 Pochard, 1000 Wigeon, 37 Shelduck, 1000 Teal, 178 Greylag, 143 Canada Goose, 8 Black tailed Godwit, Ruff, 22 Avocet, 2 Curlew, 21 Snipe…

Just a quick post to remind you of our opening times over the Christmas period:

• We will close at 2pm on Christmas Eve
  
  
• The reserve will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (this will include car park, visitor centre, main trails and river wall sections of the reserve).
  
  
• The reserve will be open as usual for the rest of the holiday period (meaning that we will be open on New Year's Eve and New Years Day) -  9.30…

One of our volunteers Yvonne is fascinated by invertebrates. During the summer she even had a brilliant display in the Purfleet hide about all the different shieldbugs. Shieldbugs are invertebrates that get their name form their scutellum (Latin fo...

Just to warn you - the following images may be disturbing, but it tells a fascinating story. Snipe have been showing well from the Purfleet hide recently. Snipe are fascinating medium sized wading bird (about 23-28 cm long), which short legs and a l...

At this time of year we not only have good duck and wader numbers around the reserve, but we also have some impressive skies - from gorgeous sunsets, beautiful sunrises, and recently some lovely rainbows - of course I had to share some wonderful pict...

Bob Cooper caught this fantastic set of pictures of a swan bathing the other day: Aren't they fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing Bob! Water to bathe in is important for birds, especially in winter. It is essential that they keep their fe...

Hello, I just wanted to let you know what is going on at Rainham Marshes over the seasonal period. Winter is a lovely place to explore the reserve throughout the year - get outdoors and enjoy a walk. Keep an eye out for large flocks of ducks like pi...

Here is a guest blog from Sim: December. The month that signals the end of the year, the month that signals winter has arrived and the month that signals Christmas is just around the corner! It’s the marmite month of the year, you either love i...

Now the upcoming story and images may be a little disturbing but there is a tale to tell.

A Bittern has been seen with some regularlity in front of the Ken Barrett Hide and as such there has been a steady stream of people sitting it out and waiting for their chance to become reality.

This has not actually happened since Saturday but Paul Richardson and Bryan Bland had a memorable if somewhat traumatising time in there…

The blog is back! Thank you for your patience while the blog went thought it's upgrade!

The short eared-owl has started showing nicely very early on in the day, and then coming out and flying near the Marshland Discovery Zone from about 2pm. We have seen two so far, so it's starting to build up sightings wise!

Short-eared owl by Stephen Lewington

Other birds of prey that we have seen recently include fantastic…

Good afternoon,

Barb, our Assistant Retail Manager is here today to tell you about a couple of offers in the shop, take it away Barb!

We have two fantastic offers for you in the Shop, running until Tuesday 26th November.

Not only is there 20% off all of our Suet Bumper Boxes, we also have 20% off our Nest Boxes.
Don't forget, you can also pick up your Christmas Cards and Wrapping Paper, and help us to give nature a home…

We have had a green wing tagged juvenile Marsh Harrier on the reserve since 10^th September but it took an age to get a good enough view of it to be able to read the black letters ZR on each wing.

The moment we read the letter - 10th October - David Element

With this information it did not take long to track down where it had come from via the BTO website.

It was ringed on the 3^rd June 2018 on Haddiscoe Marshes in…

It may be a grey day but so far our highlights have been bittern had been seen on the Tringa Pool, short-eared owl near the visitor center (seen from the café!), marsh harriers and the two cattle egrets!

We get some stunning sunsets here at the reserve! This picture is by Howard Vaughan from last nights sunset.

Just a quick reminder - Autumn/ Winter closing times: 9.30 am-4.30 pm November-January.

So…

This week's wildlife stars are still the two cattle egret that are still showing nicely!

Cattle egret by John Humble

Pat Hart (one of our volunteers) was exploring on Friday and described his day like this: a cold wet windy morning, dryer afternoon – not the best of weather for birding – but still managed to get all three pipits – rock on the sea wall, water from the Butts Hide and meado…

The cattle egrets are still showing well along with a variety of waders, ducks, and more!

The marsh harriers, kestrels and sparrowhawk are all flying over the reserve regularly so keep looking up.

The waders are showing nicely - we've had lovely views of snipe, lapwing, curlew, redshank and more...

Waders on the Purfleet Scrape by Dawn Cowan - mainly lapwing with one golden plover hidden away!

Lapwing by…

Bittern is a very scarce bird at Rainham with a single wintering bird making occasional appearances from October to March. They are almost always seen in flight and so a bird on Aveley Pool for an hour was exceptional today...  Well done to Frank and Mark for finding it...

Bittern AND the Cattle Egret - Frank Nugent

Bittern - Can you see it? James Astley

Amazingly the Cattle Egret underwent some sort of cell divison…

It has been another good day out on the marsh with much the same sort of species as yesterday in beautiful clear, autumnal weather.  It was most pleasant to be outside but the blue skies made finding birds migrating overhead very tricky.

Woodpigeon started to head south early in the day while an unprecedented number of Jackdaws (306 to be precise!) headed west on quite sizeable groups.  This is the most we have ever seen…

A quick update from the last three days with some quality visible migration going on and the continued presence of our cute Cattle Egret...

Thursday 18th October 2018

• RSPB Rainham Marshes: m Ring Ouzel, Cattle Egret, 2 Little Egret, 16 Grey Heron, 10 Avocet, 85 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Snipe, ad Yellow-legged Gull, 7 Pheasant, Swallow, 22 Blackbird, 12 Song Thrush, 2 Water Pipit, 18 Skylark, 30 Meadow Pipit, 3 Rock…

Our friends the Loughton Astronomical Society have their 50th Anniversary Astrofest day on Saturday 10th November 2018, at the Village Hall in Theydon Bois, Essex. We wanted to let you know!

Loughton Astronomical Society are fabulous, they have run activities here at Rainham before!

There will be activities for families including free displays, demonstrations and an indoor planetarium in the morning. In the afternoon…

Ornithological Summary September 2018

RSPB Rainham Marshes:

September was mostly about the Thames with the marsh itself still being incredibly dry. Amongst the tern species Arctic was surprisingly the most numerous with at least 145 up river including high counts of 43 (21st) and 36 (22nd). Common Terns were actually quite scarce and a handful of Sandwich and singles of Black (4th) and Roseate (23rd) made for some good…

Sorry it's a bit late (in fact it is almost Saturday) but just a quite sightings update to encourage you to visit at the weekend...

Friday 12th October 2018

• RSPB Rainham Marshes: Cattle Egret (David Keane, PRH, BS) 3 Wigeon, 12 Pintail, Sparrowhawk, 2 Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, 3 Avocet, 4 Curlew, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, 2 Snipe, 2 Barn Owl, Kestrel, Jay, 7 Stonechat (PRH) Black Redstart, Little Egret, 65 Lapwing…