Good Morning!

We've been advised that there are going to be roadworks happening along part of Rye Road starting from 7 August 2017 (south west of the junction with Bosanquet Road), and that the works should take 18 months to complete. From the descitption of the county order, the works involve the replacement of an existing sewer cover.

After their first lot of young fledged in June, we've been thrilled to see that our resident pair of kingfishers have successfully hatched their second brood for the year at the beginning of the month! They've been diligently taking food in and out of the nest, so hopefully we should have another large healthy group ready to fly in a couple of weeks time.

Most of the black headed gulls and their chicks have started…

Our kingfisher pair fledged their first brood on 30 May with 5 possibly 6 young seen emerging from the bank, success! The pair are already back to business excavating burrows and mating so we are waiting for the first change over to mark the start of incubation of the second clutch. We will keep you posted.

The lovely weather has bought out an abundance of damsels and dragons, cygnets and goslings, bugs and critters…

Yesterdays early wonder round revealed a greenshank on the Draper scrape along with the common sandpiper that arrived a couple days before that, nice! However later in the day we had a bit of excitement with a call from one of our regular visitors to let us know there was a wood sandpiper from the Gadwall hide, so thanks Neil for the call! I managed to nip down and get a look and a few quick digi scoped images and the…

Well it's been an exciting time here at the kingfisher hide over the last few weeks! The kingfishers have started to incubate their first brood and we estimate hatching between the 6th and 8th May. They become a little more elusive during incubation and may only be seen for changeovers every 3-5 hours.

Also in one of the kestrel boxes on the pylon, we have tawny owl and owlets...the cuteness is beyond words and they…

With the Easter holidays shortly upon on why not take a visit to Rye Meads and take part in some of our fabulous family events! We have minibeast Mondays, Family bird safaris, self led pond dipping and a nature trail.

On the 9th April, we have our Spring fun day which is going to be action packed of activities to keep the little ones busy (and the not so little ones!) Learn about nature, have a go at our trails and wildlife…

A special treat this afternoon as members of the Rye Mead's Ringing Group stopped by the visitor center with 3 bearded tit! 

These birds had been proving very elusive popping up here and there on site. But today the ringers were able to locate the birds and after some patience in to the mist net. The 2 males and 1 female were caught on the HMWT section of the reserve then processed (weighed, measured and given there…

Hi All

A light dusting of snow today but all the trails and hides are open.  Hats, gloves and scarves are needed.

Gadwall hide over 400 lapwing this morning along with ca 12 snipe, 2 shelduck, gadwall, tufted duck, shovler, and ring necked parakeet over

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Just a quick update to notify you of some habitat management we will be undertaking in February which will mean some access restrictions.

Contractors will be on site from Wednesday 8 February until 16 February carrying out scrub clearance works on the lagoon banks to create a more diverse sward and enhance wildfowl nesting opportunities. This will mean there will be no access beyond the Ashby hide on Wednesday…

Hello there!

We have had a lovely couple days here at Rye Meads with frosty mornings and sunshine the perfect weather to carry out some habitat management.

We are undertaking lots of fun work on our habitats ensuring we give nature an excellent home! The work party have been busy completing work on the island in front of the Gadwall hide ready for breeding common terns and black headed gull, fingers crossed we may even…

It's a beautiful day here at Rye Meads. The fog that covered the site yesterday has cleared to let through some blue sky and sunshine making the frost sparkle.

Despite the fog, yesterday's sightings were still rolling in with multiple bittern sightings (mainly from the Kingfisher hide), water rail, bullfinch, water vole and sparrowhawk reported to name a few. But today has far exceeded sightings with the bittern…

Yesterday we had sightings of a brand new bittern. You may remember a few months ago, we had a female (we think) bittern released on site by a local wildlife rescue organisation, which was rung before its release.  This lovely photo below  shows that this bittern has no ring, so hopefully we are now accommodating 2 on site.   Another popular bird on site at the moment is the water pipit - the photo below was originally thought…

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The Truxor, an amphibious machine, is currently on site helping out with some reed bed management work. This great piece of kit, operated by Aquaclear, is able to cut the phragmites (reed) under water from a floating position, preventing the need to drain down the area of work, which is much better ecologically. Work has had to finish early today due to a dodgy sprocket! But will hopefully pick up again on Monday…

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With another lovely October day and the work parties first bonfire of the season today we are all feeling quite autumnal. The reserve and it inhabitants are also feeling the change with cooler nights and a few misty mornings followed by bright blue sky and sun. The hawthorn berries are putting on a good show and fungi are appearing.

Bittern flying copyright TheBeardedTit@GrahamC57

Took an unexpected call from Caroline at Wildlife Welfare in the week asking if they could release a bittern on site, after it had been hit by a car in Letchworth! The team at Wildlife Welfare based in Stevenage had been in touch with RSPB HQ at the Lodge after the bird was bought in for a bit of advice and recommended us as a local reserve for release. The bittern was in good condition and after x-rays no brakes could…

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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…