Last week was British Science Week: a celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths. Here at RSPB Rye Meads in Hertfordshire, we were keen to show that science happens everywhere and doesn’t just happen in laboratories by people in white coats. Students from Wormley Primary School in Hertfordshire found that science can be done in a pond, on a path and even from a bird hide! The school, who had chosen the…

Update

In early 2018 we asked you to fill out questionnaires, vote for your favourite feature and share your ideas with us on what the new structure should look like – thanks!

 The project team analysed the feedback you gave us and used it to create a design brief to help us select a contractor. The team have since been working closely with Gilleards (the successful contractor) and we are excited to share with you…

Science week is a celebration of science, engineering and maths and we are very much looking forward to inspiring over 300 pupils next week. (https://www.britishscienceweek.org/)

As part of these celebrations a local school will be bringing all their year 1 to year 6 classes to the reserve on Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13 and Friday 15 March.  They will be learning all about birds; using binoculars to help identify and observe…

  A section of Rye Road is closed, there is no access to the reserve from Hoddesdon end of Rye Road, please use the Stanstead Abbotts end of Rye Road to visit today. We are currently looking for more information and we will let you know. Thankyou

Update.

These roadworks are due to continue until 20 October. During this period of closure we will still be open and  the reserve can be accessed from the other end of Rye…

It is a beautiful autumn day today, with clear blue skies, sunshine and a heavy dew early on.  The event this morning with the Rye Meads Ringing Group  was well attended and everyone was rewarded with lovely sightings in the hand of a variety of warblers including sedge, reed, blackcap, lesser whitethroat, and chiffchaff, plus coot with its fabulous feet, robin, dunnock and great tit. 

Chiffchaff

The final brood of kingfishers…

Fantastic Wonderful Warblers event this morning, run in conjunction with the Rye Meads Ringing Group and led by the very knowledgeable Alan Harris.

We were treated to 8 species of warbler and bonus of juvenile green woodpecker and gadwall.

Feel like you missed out after seeing these wonderful close up views of birds in the hand?

Then don' worry, call the reserve now on 01992 708383, to book on to the next event…

We had some excellent finds at Rye Meads yesterday including a Wasp Spider which is a first record for the reserve

Unexpected reports coming in this morning, the second brood of kingfishers have fledged! Adults seen passing fish to another bird in the bushes and coming out of the burrow still with fish, at least 2 seen exiting burrow one after the other. Seems our calculations were a bit out.

Great news, the Kingfishers are incubating the 3rd brood! A change over has been seen today, so by my calculations hatching should be 7-9 August. The second brood is not due to fledged until 23-25 July so our pair are going to be kept busy for the next few days.

Hello all

News you will all be interested  in! The Kingfishers are very active feeding young of the second brood. A few days ago they were joined by another pair which did not go down well, after a bit of a ruckus, our pair saw off the competition. Yesterday all was back to normal with the adults active despite the heat,bringing fish back very regularly and they even found time to think about the third brood and were…

Every naturalist has a species on their wildlife bucket list that is ‘the one that got away’. Time and time again you make it your mission to finally seek out this elusive creature, and time and time again you fail and are instead faced with “It was here a minute ago” or “Oh, you’ve just missed it”. You begin to feel that you are hunting a mythical beast and everyone else has seen the unicorn critter except you!…

During the months of February, March and April 2018 we embarked on a rather full consultation period to collect feedback and data about our visitors’ requirements for the new viewing hub. We used lots of different methods in order to collect as much data as possible, including surveys, focus groups, Q&A sessions, voting boards, comment boards and comment cards. A few dedicated volunteers even went off site, to Gunpowder…

Today we are having a nice treat with a lovely summer plumage grey plover and a ringed plover joining our regular little ringed pair, red shank and lapwing on the scrape.  A snipe put in  a brief appearance bringing the wader total to 6 for the day. Yesterdays brief appearance by an avocet sadly only seen by a few, was a lovely bonus too.

Grey plover

Ringed plover

A Cuckoo has been showing nicely this morning on…

A quick update of recent sightings

A feeling of spring is in the air today! A mad dash down to the Gadwall hide to catch up with a freshly arrived pair of garganey was accompanied by singing willow warbler, chiffchaff, blackcap, reed and sedge warbler. After managing to miss a lot of the recent spring passage namely spotted redshank, curlew, little gull another curlew, yellow wagtail, to name a few, I was pleased to…

Exciting news! We’re currently working on a new project to replace the well-used Kingfisher Hide with a more fit for purpose viewing hub.

For over 20 years the current hide has offered visitors fantastic views of kingfishers and other wildlife – now the building is suffering from wet rot, encroachment of vegetation and showing signs of water ingress. Regular inspections suggest that the hide won’t be safe for visitors…

Hi All

A first for Rye Meads over the last couple of weeks! As we have seen the formation of a large gull (Herring, lesser and greater black back etc) roost from the Gadwall hide. This has coincided with the abandonment of HMWT Amwell by the large gull roost, which as drawn in some nice rarities such as caspian gull, so fingers crossed for us.  Friday 19th evening roost consisted of 74 Great lack back, 110 Herring, 60…

Hi All

A first for Rye Meads over the last couple of weeks! As we have seen the formation of a large gull (Herring, lesser and greater black back etc) roost from the Gadwall hide. This has coincided with the abandonment of HMWT Amwell by the large gull roost, which as drawn in some nice rarities such as caspian gull, so fingers crossed for us.  Friday 19th evening roost consisted of 74 Great lack back, 110 Herring, 60…

Friday Closing

Due to staff changes and recruiting and training new team members, Rye Meads will be closed on Fridays from the 1 January 2018.

This closure will continue into February and  the end date will remain flexible until we are sure of recruitment.

We have not one, but two amazing job opportunities at Rye Meads!

We are looking for a part time Learning Officer to lead our Schools on Reserves programme, which aims to give children a chance to experience nature first-hand through curriculum linked sessions. Typical activities include pond dipping, bird watching and minibeast hunting.