You will be pleased to know that five days on Mrs Duck and her brood of eight ducklings are doing just fine and dandy!  

Jo Collins

Lawrence Rogers

I am decidedly smiley this evening...

And so after a few days away in the dreary (weather wise) south west I headed into work this morning to be greeted, while driving through Dagenham, by a biker herding ducklings alongside a very main road. Andrea got out and I found somewhere to park as clearly Mrs D and her newly hatched brood could not stay there being at least a mile from the nearest park with water.

The biker had been with them for 45 minutes and had…

Hi everyone,

How are you?

Just to let you know that the toilets are now back in operation! We have fixed the problem, and they are looking rather nice as Dean and Pete took the opportunity to do some painting while they were closed...

Dean painting the 'ladies....

The wonderfully warm weather has resulted in many dragonflies emerging over the last few days while it has been so fair that early species like the Hairy Hawker are even still on the wing.

Hairy H... John Ferguson

Hairy H with lunch ... Tom Bell

The Dragonfly Pool seems to be a good stopping point at the moment and on calm days several species may be encountered with Black-tailed Skimmers and the odd chunky Em…

The Thursday Work Party have been very busy in recent weeks clearing back the vegetation on our two main bee bank areas in preparation of another busy pollen collecting season! They have worked on the large mound in the Adventure Playground which you can see from the path and the south facing side of the bund as you approach the Ken Barrett Hide so out of view for you folks I am afraid.

Playground Bank

The Ken B…

Hi everyone,

How are you?

We have some drain issues... I am sorry to let you know that the main toilet block at the Visitor Centre will be closed for approximately a week while we fix the drain problem. We have got some temporary toilets in place around the centre so we will remain open as usual.

The toilet on the balcony, and the ones half way around the visitor trail will remain open as usual.

Sorry for any…

The girls of the St Andrew's 3rd Catford Brownies held a fundraiser as part of their RSPB Growing Up Wild Paw Print badge.

They made clay bugs, painted tealight holders with a nature theme and made paper hares to sell. The adults made the biscuits and cakes and a raffle was held all to raise money for the RSPB!

A grand total of £111 was collected last Tuesday evening so many thanks to the…

May 2017 Ornithological Summary atRSPB Rainham Marshes:

The wader passage from April continued well into may with Temminck’s Stint basically being the only ‘missing’ species. Both Curlew Sandpiper and little Stint were seen in the first week and three Wood Sandpipers on the 3rd quickly became five with one staying until the 10th. Bar-tailed Godwit peaked at 40 (4th), Grey Plover at 22 (5th) and Whimbrel at 16 (5th) with…

The Summer Sale has now started in the shop with some products that are new to us, including some Kaffe Fassett and William Morris. We also have further price reductions on existing Sale items. 

Our large selection of Ladies Scarves are Buy One, Get One Free, so that means a saving of £15!

Don’t forget Fathers Day is this Sunday!

Treat Dad this Fathers Day! Enjoy a special roast dinner…

On Monday evening we held a very successful Late Night Opening and the undoubted highlight for many people was the as we were just finishing up for the night when I encountered a Greater Stag Beetle careening around the building at head height!

I leapt like a pouncing Serval and plucked it from the air much to everybody’s amusement as they had not seen what I had but the grand reveal was worth the laughs.

It was…

The KBC went by various names yesterday - predominately the Kids Birdwatching Club and Kids Bug watching Club but it actually started off as the Swan Rescue Club.

An immature Mute Swan had mis-jusdged things in the strong winds and crashlanded on the tarmac part of the river wall. Now, the weight of swan and wind direction decides whether it can take off from this runway. Both factors were not in its favour and with…

Become part of the Puffarazzi

Project puffin needs your help this summer!

Bob Cooper

We need you to take photos of puffins with food in their bills and submit them to us. It will help us learn more about what puffins eat. If you fancy being part of our Puffarazzi team, get snapping today!

Neil Phillips

Follow these three simple steps to take part in the project:

Step 1: get ready

Pick a puffin colony…

It has been a wild, blustery and wet week here on the reserve and to be honest I think that we now have enough water to last us a while! The vegetation has rocketed up and keeping track on young waders has become a little tricky but at the moment it looks like we have once again had a great breeding season for both Redshank and Lapwing.

A few days ago I posted that unusually we did not have any Mute Swans attempting…

I was not particularly well over the bank holiday weekend... just a wretched man-flu cold thingy but enough to knock me down and remove any trace of enthusiasm for getting out and about. With nice weather this week and a degree of work freedom I made the effort to get myself out on the trails whenever a peak of energy presented itself.

As such I have had a good week for insects on the marsh as well as a few avian and…

Father's Day at Rainham Marshes

Sunday 18 June

Treat Dad this Fathers Day! Enjoy a special roast dinner (beef, or nut roast served with a vegetable selection, Yorkshire pudding and gravy all served at noon), Dad’s go free on the reserve, join the Wildlife Walk and discover nature at the Rainham Marshes, and buy a special gift from our shop! Delight Dad to a new pair of binoculars (our optics experts will be around…

So, introduce yourself... Who are you and what did you do before Rainham!

I am Rita Bloys and prior to volunteering at RSPB Rainham Marshes I was a Customer Services Manager for Abbey national at various branches finishing my career at Barking in 2004 after 23 years service. I call myself an Essex Girl having been born in Oldchurch Hospital in Romford and have spent most of my life in Elm Park and Hornchurch. I am married…

This Saturday don't miss Canvey Island Wildlife day!

This fab event run by Canvey Island Town Council and RSPB will have community and craft stalls, pond dipping, bug hunting and den building. Mike Dilger from the BBCs one show will be running two wildlife walks around the marsh and will then be judging the winners of 2017 Essex Wildlife Photography Competition!

11am-4 pm, free entry.

Welcome to another guest blog!

This blog is all about one of our amazing local schools, and their very special walk for wildlife...

Take it away Hannah and Velda:

Hello,

Our names are Hannah and Velda, and we are part of the Learning Team here at Rainham Marshes.

Here at Rainham Marshes we provide excellent school trips for all age groups (from Early Years to Key Stage 5). These curriculum linked course can be…

Our spring is still giving us little treats and the last few days have been no exception.... more to come later but suffice to say that the Comon Crane found by our Site Manager, Andrew Gouldstone (he is on a roll at the moment) yesterday was a much anticipated and appreciated find.

I made it from my home to the bird in record time and thankfully it stayed all day, feeding out in the lush meadows out on Wennington Marsh…

Welcome watchers of illusion...

Maurice once again speaks about all things cultural and natural in the RSPB Rainham Marshes area. Following the advice of my mentor Sir John Mandeville I did sojourn into serpent infested hinterlands. This time my journeying took me to the cultural phenomenon which is High House Production Park and in particular the Royal Opera House therein. If you find yourself in the Purfleet area,…

As many of you will be aware our summer visiting Turtle Doves are in big trouble and not just from the guns of the Meditteranean basin but here at home where habitat loss and a shortage of spring food amongst other factors is contributing to a catastrophic decline.

A singing male at the only site in south-west Essex - Trevor Oakley

As such we are making a concerted effort to record and monitor the epscies over the…

Last Friday Dave Smith found a stunning drake Garganey just outside the Butts Hide where it was so close that Dave was able to record its weird croaking rattle of a call. This is our only summer visiting duck and it is always a treat to encounter one. Since then it has been a wee bit elusive and when it does show it is usually out shovelling around in the middle of the Target Pools...

However, yesterday afternoon it…

It has been another interesting few days with more waders moving through and the species total for May now stands at a very impressive 25.

These two Sanderling were popular in the bay...

www.youtube.com/watch

The Whimbrel have been very popular with one group roosting on Purfleet Scrape and up to ten feeding on the capped part of the landfill.

Whimbrel - Dave McGough

A Quail sang up there for a few days from last…

The turn to chillier weather of the past week has seen the blustery north-easterly winds holding up wader migration and those birds that would normally have snuck past our inland reserve have had their journey to their high Arctic breeding grounds interrupted.

As such there has been a smorgasbord of species to choose from as the birds pause for a breather on their migration.

15 Grey Plover, Turnstone, 2 Ringed Plover…

The Volunteer Spotlight...

So, introduce yourself... Who are you and what did you do before Rainham!

I am Jim Archer and I am retired now but I used to work for a drug company and later at the Royal London Hospital as an immunologist – first attempting to improve people’s chances after transplants and then, looking at the same molecules, trying to understand arthritis. As a teenager in Edinburgh, I was interested in…