It’s time for a cup of tea here at the South Essex Marshes as we take a quick brake from a brilliant week of events, activities and surprises.
The Saturday before last we hosted our second Canvey Wildlife Fair on our newest reserve, West Canvey Marsh. A rugged, wild marshland West Canvey lived up to its untamed nature, greeting us with a cold wind whipping up the long grass and dark clouds rolling across its big skies. Luckily the rain held off and hundreds of families joined us for bug walks, pond dipping, nature trails, face painting and lovely pieces of cake, made by our very own Wildlife Explorers club. Yum!
We were also all really excited to meet Mr. Mike Dilger, from the BBC’s One Show, who is a lovely bloke and spent the day helping us spot birds, bugs, bees, reptiles and the odd splash of a water vole. The wildlife also turned out to enjoy the day, with a special visit from two black necked grebes who spent the afternoon trying out our saline lagoon.
And if that wasn’t enough Sunday saw the start of Springwatch with the RSPB. A week spent dissecting owl pellets, building nature crafts and hunting for minibeasts in our wildlife garden (where we were lucky enough to find the black and white bees again - formally known as Melecta Albifrons.)
To top it all off our Visitor Centre is also alive with wildlife activity. Our nestcam, which is currently peeking into the home of a great tit, revealed the hatching of four chicks. It’s a late broad for the pair so were really excited to see this little-great tits appear. While over in our aquarium more frogs are appearing daily as the tadpoles make the final stage in transformation. We spotted 30 at last count and are having to make daily trips to the outside pond to help these tiny hoppers on their way.
If you fancy a visit to any of our South Essex nature reserves or a chat about the activities and events we have happening this June get in touch on 01268 498627 or email southessexproject@rspb.org.uk.