Latest News RSPB Site Rainham - Jan 2022
Message from Andrew Goldstone, Senior Site Manager
December 2021
Robin Robin
RSPB has joined up with Netflix and Aardman over their recent new Christmas release, Robin Robin. This animated Christmas film on Netflix tells the story of a young robin growing up in the world. Here on the reserve, we have activities and trails linked to the story, that are great for young children and families to come and explore. Find out more here Robin Robin Aardman Film with Britain's Favourite Bird | RSPB
Bee Banks
We have dug several small ‘bee banks’. These are simple stepped cliffs in a bankside, or a small scraping back of the turf on level ground. These work best where the soil is mostly sand. We know these small areas of bare ground are incredibly valuable to a host of insect species. The picture here shows one of these features, alongside a similar feature that we created last year.
Schools are back
It’s been great to see schools returning to the reserve this autumn, and feedback from all involved suggests they had a great time. Of all our operations, education has been paused the longest due to Covid, so it really felt like a significant milestone to see these happening again. We already have bookings for over 1000 children during the rest of this academic year, and we hope to increase this.
Recent wildlife
It’s been a time for big white birds, with up to 10 cattle egret, great-white egret, spoonbill and white stork all seen recently. Plus also brent goose, Dartford warbler, brambling, redwing, ring ouzel and increasing numbers of wildfowl, including 482 coot between the Ken Barrett hide, Aveley flash and Butts scrapes. When this sort of number all ‘take-off’ together, and half fly, half patter across the water, the noise and the spectacle turn a familiar bird into something quite special.
A recent visitor, on a nice sunny warm day, was rewarded with a good view of a late grass snake (pic - Ian Holder)
Habitat work completed
We have recently had contractors on site, using a 14 tonne 3600 excavator, helping undertake various land management tasks on the reserve. This has included installing a pipe valve connection on Rainham West, which completes the programme of work we began (and largely finished) on this part of the reserve in Nov 2019. This connection will help feed water through to a network of scrapes and ditches, helping with habitat management and also local flood risk management upstream.
They then moved to Wennington Marsh, and used hard core to repair several sections of track and gateways, giving us easier access to various parts of the marsh for both vehicles and cattle.
And then finally, on both Wennington and Aveley marshes, they have undertaken our annual programme of scrape de-silting and re-profiling, helping keep these crucial habitat features in good condition for feeding wading birds and their chicks. This year we have done this work on several parts of Aveley Marsh, and also one key area on Wennington Marsh (see pics below).
When the reserve was still closed to visitors on a Monday, we took advantage of this to do some work along our entrance drive. We had contractors using a hedge cutter, and then staff and volunteers doing a great job with strimmers and brooms and shovels to further tidy up after the hedge cutter had made several passes. It’s done a great job and made a big difference – it just shows how much the bramble had encroached – you can now fully see both white triangles on our road humps!
We’ve also been doing some similar cutting back of encroaching bramble on sections of our visitor trails, especially in the woodland, though this work has to be done by hand.
Several corporate work parties have been helping shift quantities of cut reed from our reedbed management areas. After completing their work, these groups enjoyed a guided walk around part of the reserve, and we’ve had some great feedback about how enjoyable and informative these events are.
If you'd like to know more about the work of the RSPB at Rainham Marshes, receive the RSPB newsletter yourself, or take part in corporate parties with your workforce, please contact Andrew Goldstone via email [email protected]