SS15 wildlife watching: Trip away from SS15 – RSPB Rainham Marshes

RSPB Rainham Marshes is not far from my home and easily visited by public transport which I do several times a year.

RSPB Rainham Marshes protects 411 hectares of ancient, low-lying grazing marsh in the Thames Estuary. Its complex of wet grassland, reedbeds, scrapes, pools and ditches, together with grassland, scrub and woodland, supports many breeding and wintering birds. Wildlife also includes scarce wetland plants and insects and a key population of the nationally declining Water Vole.

Photo: RSPB Rainham Marshes from the visitor centre

Today, I had a very enjoyable and successful 4 hour visit walking round the circular trail and spending extended time in both the Purfleet Hide and Shooting Butts Hide.

My visit provided 2 additions to my 2024 UK year list taking it to 190 species: Kingfisher and Jack Snipe.

I had hoped to see Kingfisher, especially as it was much later in the year than when I usually record my first sighting. It was a typically very fast fly-through sighting but they all count!

My sighting of a Jack Snipe was totally unexpected. This is not an uncommon species in autumn and winter but it can be notoriously difficult to locate and see well. It is a species that I normally manage to see at WWT London Wetland Centre in December or January. Having already seen several Common Snipe from the Purfleet Hide, I spotted a much smaller snipe species with a shorter bill and with a distinctive bobbing action which was closely associating with a "normal" Common Snipe. It was immediately obvious that this was a Jack Snipe.

The highlights of my visit to RSPB Rainham Marshes were as follows: Jack Snipe (1), Common Snipe (8), Lapwing (at least 100), Avocet (at least 20 on the River Thames foreshore), Great White Egret (2 or possibly 3), Little Egret (3), Grey Heron (2), Teal (at least 200), Shoveler (at least 100), Gadwall (at least 100), Mallard (at least 20), Common Pochard (15), Shelduck (8), Tufted Duck (7), Wigeon (6), Pintail (4), Little Grebe (8), Coot (c.20), Moorhen (4), Mute Swan (8), Canada Goose (c.50), Greylag Goose (c.20), Cormorant (6), Marsh Harrier (1 male and 3 females/sub-adults), Common Buzzard (1), Kestrel (male and female), Sparrowhawk (female flew in and perched on the fencing to the ramp from the visitor centre as I was leaving), Kingfisher (1), Stonechat (male and female), Cetti’s Warbler (11 singing males all unseen), Skylark (2), Meadow Pipit (3), Pied Wagtail (2), Pheasant (male and female), Grey Squirrel (1), Red Admiral (1)