Rainham Rules.

It’s amazing really the quality and quantity of wildlife you can see at Rainham Marshes. An oasis within an industrial desert, Rainham Marshes attracts as good a species as the best reserves in the country. From the endangered Water Vole tucked deep in the reed margins to the irrepressible chattering of a Reed Warbler, wherever you looked there was something to see or hear. A cuckoo called and then flew over the woodland. Common Blue butterflies danced swiftly through the wild rose bushes and damselflies that appear to have more than one reverse gear tease and tangle with each other as they hover over the nettle beds.

Most of the wildfowl are now lazy and seem disinterested in the squabbles of the Common Terns on the scrapes. Young coots bob about on the water and the rather weird Marsh Frogs bellow out across the marsh. For me there is no better place to be when the sun shines and the winds abate.

Reed Warbler

Reed Warbler

Female Azure Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Four-spotted Chaser

Water Vole
Marsh Frog

Common Redshank

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