Sunday's VISMIG was very rewarding and worth the effort of getting up so early! After a wet start on waking, clear skies and a warm sun were waiting for me when I reached Rye Meads. I was joined by Toby and Jan from the Rye Meads Ringing group and by John, one of our volunteers. Our first spot was a young peregrine carrying a racing pigeon being hounded by a gang of crows. It was a great display that ended with the peregrine…

Hello everyone. We are back on line at last. Tweeting will recommence on Friday. Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Cheers

Caroline

Hello, our computers have been out of action since last Wednesday due to someone cutting through a cable off-site. 

If you have been trying to contact us by email, please ring the office on 01992 708383 and we will gladly deal with your query.

Cheers

Caroline

Hello everyone, due to the fog last weekend and the rather poor show by migrating birds, I am going to run another Visible Migration event on Sunday 19th October.

We will start at 8.00 am and finish at 11.00 am. This time we will coincide with the rest of the RSPB and we will be receiving regular updates from all of our reserves to find out how the autumn  migration is progressing.

As usual we will have our local experts…

Hello All

A visitor very kindly reported an unexpected visitor of the feathered variety, today in the form of a juvenile cuckoo!! It was sitting on the fence just passed the cattle shed on the meadow, showing very nicely before flying off in to more cover. An very unexpected siting at this time of year.  Maybe the change in weather has forced it to stop off on migration, although it is very late now for a cuckoo to be…

We were lucky enough last weekend to be visited by Dr. Mark Hows from the Cambridgeshire Mammal Group who set up some small mammal traps on the reserve to survey which species we might have here.

Children in the group were able to clamber into reeds and hedges to check which traps had triggered and might contain a creature, and we got a good range of species including a Harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) which was a very…

Hello All

In con-junction with the Rye Meads Ringing Group (RMRG) we will be holding a Vis Mig (visible migration) event on Sunday 12 October 2014, 7 am - 11 am.  

Join us outside the visitor center from 7 am as we monitor the passage of migrants passing over head.  We will be watching for significant movements at lower altitudes of  winter visitors such as redwing and fieldfare or species passing through such as passerines…

Just a reminder that this Saturday we are doing a mammal survey at Rye Meads with the Cambridgeshire Mammal Group. We will be setting 50 traps on Friday evening and will be opening them up again first thing on Saturday morning.

The point of mammal trapping and surveying is to record the presence and activities of wild mammals such as mice, shrews, voles, stoat and weasel. Animals are harmlessly trapped and released…

Hi all 

Popped out to the Draper and Gadwall hides this morning, and thought i would update you on what was about.

Snipe numbers are increasing with 58 at Gadwall hide and a further 3 from Draper. Water rail at both locations with the patches of reed to the right of the Gadwall hide a popular place for a water rail to pop out. A couple pied wagtails, 26 lapwing (a disappointing count has been 100+), 55 shoveler, 12

Hello All

The Rye Meads Ringing Group (RMRG)  have been busy  ringing the hirundines that have been roosting on site as they stop off on their migration.  Over the last few weeks the RMRG have ringed over 700 swallows and about 70 sand martins, that were caught in front of the Draper hide. Encouraged by the RMRG's 'happy hirundine' soundtracks we have had roosts of 100 to 500 on a regular basis.

Therefore, we…

Due to a few technical hitches at Rye Meads HQ, you may not be aware of all the events that are coming up at the reserve over the next few months. All will be corrected and amended on the website asap but in the meantime I thought I'd give you a quick rundown for your diaries!

This Saturday (aka tomorrow!) 13th September : 6.30 - 9 pm Eavesdropping on bats

Come along for an evening of learning about bats, before…

Unless you've been going round with your eyes closed recently, you've probably noticed a certain red squirrel popping up all over the place lately, going by the name of Bob! So who is Bob?

Well, Bob is a representative of nature. He is standing for all nature and natural places, and he wants to preserve and protect it for future generations. He doesn't feel that politicians care enough about our environment…

Hello All

Sorry it has been over a week since my last update.

With the islands now exposed from the gadwll hide, and the scrape looking good from the Draper hide we are all ready for the continued autumn migration.  On a quick walk this afternoon i picked up 90 lapwing, 2 egyptian geese, 2 wigeon, 45 shoveler, 94 gadwall,  water rail, 29 teal, and 4 garganey. Hirundine (house and sand martin and swallow) flocks are continually…

Hello All

Great news! The third brood of kingfishers have fledged.  Unfortunately they were a bit sneaky and fledged early Monday morning or Sunday evening. Fish were seen going in the bank Sunday morning but for the rest of the day the adults were taking no fish in. Monday no fish went in to the bank at all and 2 juvenile kingfishers were seen at the back of the gadwall hide lagoon.  

There is still activity at the bank…

Hello all

Friday saw the presentation of the original black-necked grebe painting by the artist himself  Steve Kershaw to the lucky winners husband Mr Sears (sadly Mrs sears was unavailable).  We hope Mr and Mrs Sears enjoy their lovely painting. And  great big thanks goes out to Steve for donating the painting and allowing us to raffle it off to help raise money for black-necked grebes. For more information on Steve and…

Hello All

If you are interested in nature you will have noticed that some things, such as birds, are easier to see than others such as water scorpion.  Nature reserves such as Rye Meads are home to a whole host of wildlife that is not always seen! Often this wildlife is a key food source for the birds that make a home at Rye Meads. We are giving you the opportunity to explore some of the hidden depths of Rye Meads with…

Hello All

Today was the day for the draw of the raffle for Steve Kershaw's black -necked grebe painting and the lucky winner is Cathy Sears.  Steve will be presenting the painting to Cathy on Friday.  If you have not managed to come by and see the black-necked grebes our remaining juvenile black-necked grebe is continuing to show well from the Gadwall hide, looking all grown up in winter plumage.  

Other sightings…

Hello All

Coming up on the 16 August we are hosting an event run by the Rye Meads Ringing Group (RMRG), Wonderful warblers, 8 am - 10 am, £8 non-members and £4 members.

This time of year warblers are starting to form mixed flocks with tits and possibly something like a treecreeper.  The breeding season is coming to a close and they are concentrating on feeding up before the long journey back to their wintering…

Hello All

Despite not getting a great haul in the moth trap (25 species) there were some gorgeous species and a definite colour theme going on, hence the title of this post. 

Brimstone moth

Carcinia quercana

Large Yellow underwing

Chequered fruit-tree tortrix (sorry this is a bit blurry)

Straw dot

Canary shouldered thorn (isn't it amazingly bright yellow, wow)

Other species carrying on the theme…

Hello All

As you are aware our pair of kingfishers are currently feeding the young on their 3rd brood! Hurrah. The eggs hatched about a week ago, so they are due to fledge around the 20 August.  This is quite an early end to the breeding season for them as they started their first brood early in the season and the second and third broods overlapped.   Three broods is the usual amount we archive from the pairs at the kingfisher…

Hello All

Little did i expect that a query about an unusual bird at half past three yesterday would turn out to be something quite as good as a spotted crake! When i got down to the Draper hide the bird was being particularly unhelpful hiding in the vegetation. It then emerged and we could confirm spotted crake!   This is only the second record for Rye Meads, with the first in March1979, so a really good tick.  This …

This afternoon a Spotted crake (Porzana porzana) has been sighted from the Draper hide!

To give as many people as possible the chance to view this rare and often elusive bird, we will be staying open later this evening. Access will be through the front gate as normal, and then round to the right hand side of the visitor centre, as the building will be locked as normal. The first (Draper) hide will be open and manned…

Hello All

What a lovely day to be be out.

A good count of 11 green sandpipers on the Draper scrape this morning which had increased to 12 this afternoon.  Also on the Draper today a little egret, grey heron, 4 lapwing, some recently fledged common terns along with a little grebe family.  

The water voles are eating us out of house and home with the apples put out yesterday all gone bar a few bits of skin left on the…

Hello All

After a couple of queries, i thought i would pop out today and see if we had any raspberry clearwings this year, boy do we!  

I put the pheromone lure up near to the raspberry and blackberry patch next to the ramp as you go up to the tern and gadwall hides.  With in 2 minutes i had 3 raspberry clearwings around the pheromone, and then they just descended i can't ever remember so many coming so quickly!  

Hello

It has been a while since i ran the moth trap so i was slightly overwhelmed this morning when i came to empty the trap and mother of pearl and riband wave came flying out in the dozens.  However i was rewarded with a nice full trap and some nice specimens including a couple of hawk moths 1 poplar and a small elephant, trap total came to just over 60 species, so pretty good.

poplar hawk moth

Other macros incl…