It’s been a busy few weeks here at Rye Meads with lots of family events going on to keep the little ones entertained!

Throughout the rest of the school break, you can take part in one of the special activities designed to get kids closer to nature and get a certificate and sticker for taking part! Our ‘spring into summer’ nature trail is aimed at children under 8 and is running every day of the holidays. There…

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The third brood of kingfishers have hatched, which means increased activity at the nest bank! So you still have time to pop down for a visit. We are looking for fledging around 5 or 6 September and have arranged another early morning kingfisher event for 10 lucky peoplewww.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynatu…/…/events/details.aspx…(kingfisher image by Keith Bedford)

The Rye Meads Ringing Group…

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To start with we have kingfisher news! The kingfishers have fledged their second brood yesterday! Five young were seen leaving the bank and hanging around the pool, while the adults were kept busy bringing fish in, excellent. Over the past few weeks the adults have also been mating and clearing out another hole ready for a third brood so we are just waiting for them to start incubating (fingers crossed).

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Arriving this morning to an empty kestrel nest box, was quite sad (although we were expecting the 2 chicks to fledge any day) until this little fella peered in the office window. 

He then proceeded to explore the wildlife garden and compound, where he found lots of bits to climb up. Unfortunately his balance is not great so he kept tumbling to the ground (lucky he had not got too high) so we decided to…

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A couple of updates for you today.

Firstly the kingfishers have hatched their second brood, hurrah! The adults have been seen taking fish in to the nest bank today a sure sign that the eggs have hatched.  Currently the fish being taken in are very small, but it will not be long before the parents are coming and going frequently with large fish.  Fledging occurs when the young are 24-25 days old (but can take longer…

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Its National Insect Week this week.  To celebrate the vast array of insects that live at Rye Meads and #littlethingsthatruntheworld i thought i would share a few insect pictures with you taken here at Rye Meads.

For more information on national insect week please visit nationalinsectweek.co.uk 

We hope you can visit Rye Meads this week ands find some of the marvelous insects that call Rye Meads home…

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Hope you all had a great National moth night.  Despite the deterioration of the weather we ran the moth trap over 3 nights and 15 visitors joined Erin and i to empty the trap at 9 am. We recorded a total of 77 species over the 3 days and hawk moths put on a good show with 3 poplars on the first day, a poplar and an elephant on day 2 and a poplar and 2 elephant on day 3, sadly no privet or eyed were caught but…

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Since fledging their first brood on 24 May the kingfishers have been busy courting and mating in preparation for the second brood. They have settled on a new hole for this clutch (middle row of sand right hand end) and fingers crossed incubation will start soon.

A number of broods of canada geese are on site with rapidly growing goslings, mute swans have cygnets, a few pochard have young along with broods…

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The last few days have seen a flurry of migrant activity here at Rye Meads. With the Draper scrape being the most popular spot with 3 common sandpipers (still 2 yesterday) 2 dunlin, little ringed plover, oystercatcher and greenshank. We also had a report of a nightingale singing intermittently near the hide on the 10th. A lesser whitethroat has also been staking his territory and signing well to the left of the…

Hi all, Debs here.

Just a little post for those of you that don't already know, to say that I am leaving Rye Meads and that tomorrow will be my last day as Visitor Experience Officer here on the reserve.

I wanted to thank you all for making my time here so enjoyable, for always stopping by the office for a chat, for sending me photos of animals out on the reserve (that I've been trying to spot for days!) and for…

Rye Meads Ringing Group - Nestbox watch

An update on our ringing event on Saturday 14 May.. this has now been moved to the new date of Saturday 21 May to accommodate for the majority of birds being old enough to ring on the day. Many apologies for any inconvenience and we hope to see many of you there. The time remains the same, 1 - 3 pm.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/seenature/events/details.aspx?id…

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Thought you might appreciate a small update on unusual and less unusual sightings we've had lately on the reserve.

First and arguably foremost.. Kingfishers! Our pair settled down to incubate their first clutch on the 8th April, and have been spotted changing over at roughly 2 hourly intervals. So hold out until the start of May for those more frequent sightings!

Kestrels likewise, we think we've got…

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With the return of our first common tern on 13 April, i thought i would give you some information about the common tern nesting rafts we provide for them (and the black headed gulls) to use.

During March the management volunteers had a few busy weeks getting the rafts ready for the breeding season, 100's of black headed gull were already on site waiting expectantly for the rafts and we were not expecting a tern…

Blogs are like buses.. there's none for ages and then they all come along at once! Anyway, just realised we have a few things to tell you about so here we go:

First and foremost.. Next Saturday (16th April) is our Big Spring Funday! The day runs from 10 am - 4 pm and there will be plenty to see and do including: Learn about nature, have a go at our trails and wildlife hunts, grab a net for pond dipping, try your…

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Our kingfishers are incubating their first clutch, hurrah! 
We are happy to report a definite change over witnessed today, so the count down can begin. Incubation is likely to last 19-21 days so we are looking around 27-29 April for the first fish to be taken in to the bank to indicate the eggs have hatched. A clutch is likely to contain 6-7 eggs. During incubation the pair share duties on the eggs and a change…

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Arriving this morning i was greeted by a singing chiff chaff closely followed by a redwing just in front of the visitor center, so a bit of summer winter over lap.

For the first time we have a pair of kestrels in the box at the kingfisher hide and another pair in the box in the car park.  The car park pair are proving very photogenic. Other birds of prey have include occasional sightings of sparrowhawk, peregrine…

Everyone at RSPB Rye Meads would like to say a big THANKYOU to Weblight Limited www.weblight.co.uk

Specialist Lighting, Electrical and Energy Solutions

01920 872 287 or www.weblight.co.uk

We contacted this company for a quote to replace the uplighters in the reception area and classroom of the visitor center. They came for 2 pre visits and then spent half a day on site with 2 people refurbishing the reception and classroom…

It's all gone a bit photography mad down here at the moment with all the spring weather encouraging people to get out and about taking pictures of wildlife!

Our local photographer and all round volunteer Tom Mason ran a session for the wildlife explorer's last month, teaching them basic skills in camera use and photographing wildlife. Using their new-found knowledge they have been tasked with homework to go out…

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Wildlife and visitors alike have been enjoying the beautiful weather this week with frosty mornings and beautiful blue sky days.

Can you spot the female brambling?

There is a definite spring feel on site with robin, reed bunting and dunnock singing their claims and black thorn, snow drop, celandine and primrose in flower. In contrast to that (it is still February after all) we still have good numbers of…

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We have work parties on Tuesdays and Thursdays, every week during this time we carry out habitat and estate work on site, occasionally this means we have to close trails or hides, or work in front of a hide as we carry out the management. This is a quick note to update you on what our volunteer work party will be doing this week.  We will be working around the kingfisher trail predominantly the path after the…

Butterbump, Bogblutter, toasted Heron... there are many names for a Bittern. But before you all get excited, we haven't seen one this weekend! However I thought you might appreciate an update on the movements we've observed of them so far this winter.

Despite the lack of really cold weather, we have had more glimpses than usual of (a? maybe a couple of?) Bittern on the reserve, leading us to be quietly optimistic…

Hello there, I'm speaking to all our wildlife explorer members and their parents/grandparents here.

Just in case you hadn't heard, we have had to change February's club meeting from the third Saturday to the fourth Saturday to allow for a special activity we'll be running. Times remain the same from 11 am -  1pm.

This means February's date will now be Saturday 27 February, and the theme is "Be a Wildlife…

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Well today (Friday 22/1/16) is the last day for the contractors to be working on site cutting the lagoon banks. But that does not mean the work is over! However it does mean that the paths will be open again ready for the weekend, with just a note of warning that the weather outlook is not great for today (rain), so this may mean there is a bit of mud on the track over the weekend.  Our volunteers will continue…