Rye Meads Ringing Group

See a full the thread about who we are and what we do here ⬇️

Night Heron spotted flying north over Rye Meads at 09:20 this morning by keen-eyed @AH_birdartist! @BirdGuides @Hertsbirds

Featuring Rye Meads!! 🔗bto.org/smp-news @RSPBRyeMeads @Hertsbirds @HMWTBadger

G'wan Matt Wallace!! 😍💥🥳

@RSPBRyeMeads @chrisgibson34 @AH_birdartist Fantastic! 😍

Wowza!!!

@norfolkbirdtour @RSPBLakenheath @DaveRLakenheath Fantastic!

Guiding down in the Brecks/Fens again yday - we spent a very pleasant couple of hours at @RSPBLakenheath Fen. The ringed female Bittern flew past Mere Hide again, almost exactly the same place I have seen it here pretty much every year since 2017!

From exotic beginnings on Maui with Wedge-tailed Shearwater, to Manx Shearwater on Lundy, & now Black-headed Gulls at an inland site in Herts, @birderjess has discovered seabird monitoring & there is no turning back! #MondayMotivation Discover more at bto.org/smp

The gang have now recovered from a top weekend: Black-headed Gull monitoring & ringing (complete with bailing out the boat with a pint glass - classy!), rescuing an Egyptian Goose gosling, tit box checks & catching a retrap Green Woodpecker ringed on site as a juvenile in Oct'22!

@MurrayOrchard @smp_seabirds Of course! 🤣

I expect this will be a familiar pattern. Checking Medway & Swale sites by boat today… Hope your data will be reported on SMP! Need to keep a certain person happy!😂 @smp_seabirds

Tonight we undertook our annual breeding survey of BHGulls at Rye Meads. With 133 occupied nests on the @RSPBRyeMeads reserve & 19 more on the Thames Water side, 152 in total. Around half of pre-bird flu levels. There's already 40 chicks - fingers crossed for a successful season!

@ShepherdWells @RSPBRyeMeads @chrisgibson34 @sehertsrspb Thanks! Have shared with the gang - they might start appearing! 😁

Sad but interesting find. A Water Rail clutch 'crowed', Rye Meads, Herts. Some rare skills from the corvid to find the nest and remove six eggs, presumably one at a time, and neatly open them up. Turned over they look whole.