On the 4th Thursday of the month at 10:00am we meet at differing locations in order to look at and identify anything and everything nature. On the last outing I had a truly amazing number attend, 23 to be exact, and we went round RSPB Rainham Marsh. This happens to be where I visit every week, so I had a fair idea of what we might see.
During our visit we saw 23 different species of birds, at the visitor centre house sparrows were making lots of noise and were fully utilising the bird boxes fitted to the side of the centre.
We saw a number if summer visitors to this country including swifts, house martins and sand martins all of which were swooping in the sky catching flying insects to eat.
Others of the summer visitors were heard calling from the reed beds, namely reed warblers and sedge warblers.
One bird that is often seen at the reserve is the marsh harrier, and we were not disappointed as we saw several, and also a buzzard and a kestrel. However the star of the show were a pair of kingfishers that were showing nicely just outside one of the hides.
Just outside the hide where the kingfishers were showing was a little grebe sitting on its nest
I had hoped during our visit that I could show a barn owl, that I know lives at the reserve, but when we got round to the place where I could see the barn owl box it was empty. We finished the visit with refreshments back at the visitor centre.