• Easter at Rye Meads

    Photo by Matt Wilkinson (http://rspb-images.com)

    We're really excited to offer a range of events this Easter Holidays!

    Bring the whole family down for our Spring Trail and Pond Dipping information below (don't forget to grab yourself a coffee or an ice cream!)

    Take part in pond dipping and discover the creatures lurking in the hidden depths of the waters - from the tiny water flea to the mighty dragonfly nymph…

  • Water Voles

    We are so lucky that two water voles are once again calling the Draper pond their home. If you are patient and quiet you may see one.
    Have a look around the pond for the water voles favourite spots, marked by latrines (piles of poo) or feeding sites (piles of nibbled fresh green vegetation), find a good spot and wait. If you are lucky keep your movements slow and noise low, so you don't spook them. The water is so clear…

  • Kingfisher season 2024

    It’s that time of year again, the Kingfisher breeding season will soon be here!

    I can honestly say I can’t remember a breeding season like last year! One for the books. The loss of two females kept things interesting but the loss of the male ended the season for us, very abruptly.

    The return of the established pair from 2022 meant activity started very early in February 2023 with the pair investigating the…

  • Amwell View School at RSPB Rye Meads

    Nature is for Everyone!

    This year, the Schools on Reserves team at RSPB Rye Meads has had the pleasure of welcoming a class of teenage special needs students, from local school Amwell View. The students spent a few hours over 4 weeks at the nature reserve, learning how to pond dip and how to identify pond animals. In the final week, the group then showed a younger class from the same school how it’s done! It was brilliant…

  • Kingfisher Update / Roving Volunteer Blog

    Hopefully a full sightings blog for June will be available soon - in the meantime here's a couple of updates, first about Kingfishers at the reserve, and then the main feature, a piece from Roving Volunteer Colin, summarising his thoughts on the status of Warblers in the Spring at Rye Meads.

    Kingfisher Update

    After an almost perfect year for kingfishers in 2022, with three broods at the Kingfisher Hub and two at…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - May

    May on the Reserve

    A few people to thank this month – Mel for his usual mutterings which flesh out a bit of variety in these blogs, our monitoring volunteer Nick for his thorough counts of birds and butterflies, and reserve volunteer Millie for collating photos from the Friends of RSPB Rye Meads group for this month. Plus of course, everyone who logs their sightings with us in the Visitor Centre!

    Plenty of positives…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - April

    April on the Reserve

    April is always a good month for some brief and unusual arrivals as birds stop over on migration, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. 23 bird species were seen here for the first time in 2023 (and one for the first time ever!). A fair few of these were flyovers, so its always worth making sure you’re looking in the sky as you walk between hides, and others were here for just a few hours so well done…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - March

    March on the Reserve

    Spring has definitely sprung, although my final memories of March are of going through three sets of clothes putting all of our Easter activities out in the rain and mud…

    Regardless, we’re calling is Spring – blackthorn is in blossom, there’s daffodils around, and we’ve had our first butterflies of the year (Peacock and Brimstone). Before we get to the birds, we’ve also had a stoat make an…

  • Roving at Rye Meads - Colin H.

    Day to day operations at RSPB Rye Meads are run by two full-time and one part-time member of staff to keep the doors open 7 days a week from 9am-5pm. It therefore relies heavily on a brilliant team of volunteers - 79 of them in the last year! One of our more recent recruits, Colin, has been with us every Monday in our 'Roving' volunteer role, heading out onto the reserve as a friendly point of contact for our visitors.…

  • Wild Isles – Making nature accessible in Hertfordshire

    Has Wild Isles inspired you to get out and see a starling murmuration or other nature spectacle for yourself? Urban nature experiences are closer than you think.
  • Bearded Tits at Rye Meads

    Over the last few months there's been a bit of a buzz around several visitors to Rye Meads (of the avian variety, although I'm sure some of you create a buzz too).

    One of those species is the Bearded Tits: first spotted in October, we've had peaks and troughs of sightings in various parts of the reserve all the way to March.

    Like most species that have visited Rye Meads, Bearded Tits have been tracked and…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - February 2023

    February on the Reserve

    Its a bit odd to write this looking out of the window at snow, but its been an unusually mild February, particularly during Half Term. Its been another bumper month for major sightings, with our highlights from January sticking around and being joined by some other firsts for 2023. Water levels at Draper stayed relatively high for the month but we did bring them down at Gadwall. Both are now reducing…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - January 2023

    The start of a new calendar year is always a busy time for us here at Rye Meads, with the slate wiped clean and our annual sightings log reset to zero! But the year has started brilliantly with some major highlights for us, as early as New Year's Day.

    We're also recruiting volunteers to a variety of roles at the reserve, so if you have any time to spare, however small, do check out volunteer.rspb.org.uk to find…

  • December Sightings

    Rye Meads News

    Those of you who visited or read the November blog will have heard about our concerns about the potential for Avian Flu. The good news for us is that there was no further suspicious bird behaviour in December and no bird fatalities beyond the handful to be expected in winter or via predation. Unfortunately though, avian flu remains a huge concern in the wider region and nationally, so please do remain vigilant…

  • November Sightings + Mel's Mutterings

    Rye Meads News

    As we're finally getting some winter weather, we're into the time of year of a lot of habitat management on the reserve. Regular visitors may have seen the floating reed cutter out on the Draper and Gadwall lagoons at the start of the month, as well as contractor machinery clearing some of the scrub along the paths. We're very grateful to a generous donation from the South East Herts RSPB Local Group for…

  • October Sightings - Mel's Mutterings

    October’s been an interesting month! At times we’ve finally had the rainfall we desperately needed, but in general its been incredibly mild. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been able to do some large scale habitat management, cutting back much of the scrub along the paths and on the Draper scrape, both with a contractor and our excellent volunteer work parties. That possibly combined to lead to some different species…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog - September

    This month has come and gone in a blur it seems! Hot weather continued for a while but we are now seeing the signs of the changing seasons as our summer species reduce in numbers. Habitat management work is also picking up with the Wildlife Trust doing plenty of work in the meadow, and our volunteer work party tackling some of the vegetation at the Draper and Gadwall Hides. We've also had a major sighting for us at the…

  • Rye Meads Sightings Blog: 14th-31st August

    Its been another good season for the Rye Meads Kingfishers, although at times they've really kept us guessing! At the Kingfisher Hub, a new male arrived and was quickly put in his place by the female, leading to three successful broods. Although they took a little while to get going, once the first brood hatched, there was a short crossover with the second - so short that they hatched a week before we were expecting!…

  • Mid-August Sightings Blog

    It's been relentlessly hot and dry over the last couple of weeks - I actually spent a week in Menorca to go somewhere a bit cooler! Water levels on the reserve have been pretty low and the total lack of rain isn't helping, and yet there's still been plenty around to keep us occupied while we're trying to find some shade. Kingfishers are of course the highlight of the reserve and we're flooded with hundreds of photos of…

  • End of July Sightings

    The record high temperatures this month did send some of our wildlife (and staff!) hunting for shade and shelter but there has still been plenty to see. We’re also heading into the Summer Holidays, meaning we’ve got six weeks worth of young explorers joining the ranks for our sightings guides coming up!

    Here we cover the last three weeks of your records from our sightings book, and contributions from our regular…

  • June/July Sightings Blog + Mel's Mutterings

    It’s been a packed month, so much so that we missed an end of month blog! Away from the species sightings, our work party have been busy painting and repairing the handrails and fences around the site, we’ve been preparing for the RSPB’s upcoming Big Wild Summer events, and we’ve had school groups visiting almost every weekday. It’s been amazing seeing so many enthusiastic kids taking part in the curriculum-based activities…

  • Mid-June Sightings Blog - Mel's Mutterings & Visitor Photos

    Strangely mixed weather on the reserve over the last few weeks, but summer is very much here now – between myself and our volunteers we could definitely have a good ‘Knobbliest Knees’ competition. Over at the Kingfisher Hide we finally have signs of incubating a second brood, after a lot of confusing behaviour! For plenty of variety, you don’t even need to reach the Visitor Centre, as our herb garden and Wildlife Garden…

  • End of May Sightings Blog - Mel's Mutterings & Visitor Photos

    In the last full week of May there’s been plenty happening! Our first Kingfisher brood of the year fledged on Monday with four youngsters finally leaving the nest. One was very reluctant but they’re now all away, and there’s signs of prep for the second brood at the Kingfisher Hub. At the Draper hide there may be signs of hatched young so its all go!

    Here are the latest highlights in the next instalment…

  • Mid-May Sightings Blog - Mel's Mutterings & Visitor Photos

    Approaching May Half Term we’ve had some very warm weather, but as I write this it’s hammering down with rain! That combo over the last few weeks has brought out some serious greenery, and plenty of butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies to go with it. Out of the window by my desk I’ve had a brilliant distraction with starlings making use of a nestbox above the door to the Visitor Centre – they could fledge any day…

  • Mel's Mutterings - End of April Sightings Blog

    The other side of Easter has seen a mixture of warm and still, and cool and windy - fortunately we've begun to see plenty of Year Firsts, including Reed Warblers and the unmistakable sounds of Cuckoos. We've also had a pair of very confident Kestrels mating around the nest boxes near the Kingfisher Hub and the car park - we have our fingers crossed for nesting after a couple of years of absence! Redshank have also been…