We monitor and maintain more than eighty nestboxes of various types. National Nestbox Week is a good time to share details of how we look after ours.
Archive | Recent Activities
Recent activities of RMRG
Ringing is sometimes a drag!
Recent activities Dragging the meadow. Matt on the left and Dave on the right are pulling the net, Gordon, Alan and Jan are walking behind the trailing edgeRinging is sometimes a drag! Drag netting can be hard work, but it’s the best way to catch one of our most enigmatic waders, writes Roger […]
Drabs and Dribs
Recent activitiesThe author looking for another Dunnock. (Roger Emmens)Drabs and Dribs …or, how counting Dunnocks can be fun! A report by Brian Milligan To be honest, it sounded like a difficult sell: get up early on a freezing morning in December and count the dribs and drabs of the birding world: the Dunnocks, the Wrens […]
RMRG’s very own D-day
Recent activities Saturday 3 June 2017: RMRG’s very own D-day The heroic story of an amphibian operation codenamed E-day involving two vessels and some 300 Black-headed Gulls – a report from the Seamen’s Mess by Brian Milligan Exactly 73 years ago allied commanders were putting the final touches to their plans for the Normandy Landings. […]
Record-breaking Black-tailed Godwit
Recent activitiesBlack-tailed Godwit flock (Jay Ward)Record-breaking Black-tailed Godwit I was lucky enough to be sitting in the Gadwall hide at RSPB Rye Meads on the morning of Sunday 25th June 2017. A female Garganey had been spotted on the reserve the day before so I was scanning through the loafing birds, trying to find it. […]
Social media has its uses!
Social media can be a great tool to help ringing studies. Jan Swan recounts how a recent post on Facebook helped the group identify a new recovery…
Hail to the Emperor!
Recent activities Hail to the Emperor! At the recent Rye Meads RSPB Fun Day, Site Manager Vicky Buckel produced some Emperor Moth pheremone from the freezer, with startling results, as reported by Roger Emmens. On the afternoon of the recent RSPB Fun Day at Rye Meads, Site Manager Vicky Buckel announced she had some Emperor […]
Group outing: BTO Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey of Skye
Recent activitiesLooking west from Dunvegan with MaCloed’s Table in the distance after a hard days surveying. Sally HarrisGroup outing: BTO Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey of Skye This time last year, an ‘expedition team’ from Rye Meads Ringing Group took part in a UK-wide survey, on Skye. Alan Harris recalls the trip. Three inches of snow on […]
Water Pipits at Rye Meads
Recent activitiesWater Pipit at Rye Meads (Ravi Prakash Parvatharaju)Water Pipits at Rye Meads Rye Meads is the main location for Water Pipits wintering in Hertfordshire, but they are usually hidden away out in the meadows or over on the sewage works, so an unusually showy individual on the reserve has created quite a bit of […]
Alan the Robin unmasked
Recent ActivitiesAlan the Robin unmasked Maria Mak reveals his identity ‘Alan the Robin’ has been delighting visitors to the Draper Hide at Rye Meads Nature Reserve for some time. His popularity is such that he even has a following on Twitter on the RSPB Rye Meads page. Alan got his name from the volunteers at […]