Hi all,

I have a confession to make.. you may have noticed in my last blog I had written weekend highlights 11 and 12 July... I meant AUGUST!
Woops!

Sorry!

Just to confirm -
The kingfishers have hatched at the Kingfisher hide, and the adults have been going in and out of the bank taking in fish.

Keep an eye out for VIP Kingfisher Events coming soon!

Sorry about that!

Lou :)

Morning all,

How are you?

Over the weekend we had some nice sightings, that I thought I would share:

The kingfishers were spotted leaving the nest bank at the Kingfisher Hide with an egg shell - which suggested the brood has hatched! Yay!
The adults tend to take the egg shell far away to drop them - they don't want any egg shell near your nest, giving away the nest location to predators!

On Sunday there was…

Hi everyone,

How are you?

Yesterday I posted some pictures of baby shrews! Weren't they adorable? If you haven't seen the pictures look here.

It was a great spot by a visitor to the reserve - up by the gate that's just past the Draper hide, there is a compost heap. Well one of our visitors noticed movement, and on closer inspection he saw it was tiny baby shrews running about! So keep your eyes pealed you never…

Hi all,

How are you?

An amazing spot from a visitor this afternoon - baby shrews!

 With a pound coin so you can see how big it is!

Aren't they sweet!

More later!

Bye for now!

Hi everyone,

how are you?

I thought I would share some of the things that we have seen today:

Greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, blackbird, wren, sedge warbler, reed warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff, moorhen, coot, grey heron, cormorant, magpie, jay, woodpigeon, mallard, gadwall, shoveler, common tern, carrion crow, black headed gull, lesser black backed gull, green woodpecker, great spotted…

Rye Meads is delighted to be part of a new scheme for families to go out and explore the natural world!

Rye Meads is part of Discover Explore!

Discover Explore is an exploration game set in the Lee Valley that encourages families and young people to get outdoors and uncover the stories and history of different locations through a series of daring missions.

Would-be explorers create an account online at www.discoverexplore…

Have you done something amazing for wildlife?

Do you know someone who's given nature a helping hand?

We think it's time people were rewarded for helping the natural world, so the RSPB is launching the Stepping Up for Nature awards to celebrate local communities and individuals in the eastern counties who have done something amazing for wildlife.

Aggie Rothon, awards manager said, ‘we know that there are…

The girls of St Margaret’s school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, have raised a whopping £650 for their local RSPB nature reserve – Rye Meads!

The girls from St Margaret’s, which is an independent school for girls aged 4-18, raised the money through activities they ran over the last couple of months.

Joan Childs, Rye Meads’ Site Manager, was invited over to the school to give at talk about the work…

Morning!

How are you all today?

Enjoying the sun shine? Remember to drink lots of water and make sure you've got suncream on!

I thought I would share some of the wildlife highlights for the day!

There was at least 50 lapwings, 2 green sandpiper, little egret, common tern, and loads of ducks out at the Draper hide this morning.
The kingfisher has been showing off over at the Kingfisher hide as well - they are getting…

On 13 July MEP Richard Howitt visited Rye Meads, along with Sacha Cleminson Head of the RSPB's International Biodiversity Policy Unit!

Keith Bedford (one of our Lead Volunteers) and Vicky Buckel (Assistant Site Manager at Rye Meads) took Richard and Sacha around the reserve to look at our fabulous reedbeds.

 Keith (Lead volunteer) and MEP Richard Howitt

The RSPB has been working hard to save the rare bittern…

Afternoon all,

How are you?

 The results are in!

Last weekend we had our first ever bioblitz at the reserve. Over the weekend of 14 and 15 July we tried to find every single species (of anything) that is here at the reserve.

A BioBlitz is an "intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. Groups of scientists, naturalists and volunteers conduct an intensive…

Afternoon all,

How are you?

Over the weekend the young fledged. On Saturday a few people saw the male giving the female a fish - but also heading into one of the bushes along side the bank (even taking fish into the bush so there could have been a young one in there somewhere.)

By Sunday the young had gone completely - once they have fledged we don't really see the babies. They hide away and then head off to find their…

Ooh it looks like the kingfishers have started/ have fledged!

Visitors have seen one of the adults passing fish to another kingfisher - lots of people hvae seen this today, so it sounds like the adult is feeding the baby/ babies! We're not sure if just one has fledged or if they all have and they've just hidden themselves in bushes! There is a possibility that people have been seeing the male feed the female which…

Evening all,

How are you today?

So what's going on with the kingfishers?
Good question!

Well to be honest, I don't know! Which is not the most helpful statements on a blog entitled "kingfisher update"... Let me explain...

So the pair of kingfishers at the Kingfisher hide - well the young should have fledged by now, the babies usually fledge after 24-25 days, but with all this rain it seems to…

With all this rain it's causing quite a lot of havoc around the country... including on RSPB reserves!

Over at one of our sister RSPB sites Radipole Lake (in central Weymouth in Dorset) is suffering with flooding problems.
I wanted to share with you a post from Michael Wilson's post on Arne's blog:

Here is the story of how the reserve plans to get back on their feet as soon as possible and information about…

Hi everyone,

Me again,

I forgot to mention that the oystercatchers were back at the Draper hide again yesterday!

Keep an eye out - the waders sometimes skulk around the back of the islands so just keep looking!

Now I found this very exciting as oystercatchers are one of my favorite birds.
They are stunning birds, and they make the most amazing call (you can listen to the squeaky call by clicking on this link, it has…

Hi everyone,

how are you?

You know when you are walking to the Kingfisher hide... you turn left off the main path and walk onto the little D shaped section of path that takes you to the Kingfisher hide, and onto a bridge?

Well if you stand on that bridge and look down the stream towards the Ashby hide you'll notice on the right side of the stream there are three or so trees about waist height...
These trees…

Hi everyone!

How are you?

I thought I would share some more pictures of the baby barn owls!

For the longest time we weren't sure what the barn owls were doing - but we saw the adults taking in food so we were pretty sure they were feeding young. The Rye Meads Ringing Group decided to have a quick look to see if there were babies and how old they were. Turns out the babies were older than we thought so the other…

The Rye Meads Ringing Group went out and ringed the baby barn owls on site!

Here we have the two baby barn owls - the first time in over 50 years we've had breeding barn owls at Rye Meads! We werent even sure the pair were breeding at first - but here they are nearly ready to fledge! (More pictures and information soon!)

Hi everyone,

The lovely David Lindo aka the Urban Birder visited today!
It was the first time that he has visited us at Rye Meads, and he had a lovely time!

It might have been raining a little, but the visitors, David and myself all had a nice walk!
We saw/ heard lots including:
Kingfisher, teal, shoveler, tufted duck, pochard, gadwall, mallard, wigeon,  little grebe, great crested grebe, common tern, black headed gull,…

Morning everyone,

How are you today?

We are delighted that David Lindo, the Urban Birder, will be coming over to Rye Meads on Sunday! David will be at the reserve from 10 am and will be hanging out to chat to people and coming on a walk round the site (which starts at 10.30 am) and will be here for a few hours! Don't miss out!

David Lindo is a writer, broadcaster, speaker and a bird guider. He regularly appears…

Hello everyone!

how are you?

I've just been over to have a look at Draper hide to see what wildlife is about...

There are two black-tailed godwits, two green sandpipers, two lapwing, two little egrets, a teal, gadwall, pochard, mallard, tufted duck, coot, moorhen, black headed gull, common tern, mute swan and cormorant.

The black-tailed godwits are lovely to see. We don't see then that often, and they…

Good morning,

I hope that you are all well.

 I thought I would let you know all the different wildlife that we have seen over the past few days at Rye Meads.

Draper hide:
Lapwing, green sandpiper, oystercatchers, little grebe (keep an eye out as there is a pair with the smallest chicks quite near the hide - so cute!), little egret, grey heron, mute swan (a pair and four cygnets - they are lovely), shelduck, gadwall…

Good afternoon,

How are you?

I'm very excited to tell you that the kingfishers at the Kingfisher hide have hatched! The adults were spotted taking fish into the bank!

It's a good time to see the kingfishers as the adults will be in and out of the bank every few minutes taking the hungry babies food!

I know everyone want to see kingfishers, so it can get quite busy in the hide... So please be nice and budge…

Hi everyone,

How are you?

Over the last week the kestrels up at the Kingfisher hide have been showing off amazingly! Andy, one of our Roving Reserve Guides, even told me that over the weekend of  Friday 15, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 June the kestrels were even out shining the kingfishers!

Over the weekend the 5 young kestrels in the box were showing off nicely, and were lookinglike they might fledging soon! 

Have a look…