RSPB RAINHAM MARSHES NATURE RESERVE

The Reserve once again has a newsletter and it is hoped that we can produce it on a monthly basis to keep everyone abreast of development on the site.

Marsh Matters : Issue Ten June 8th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Nine April 30th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Eight April 6th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Seven March 12th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Six February 5th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Five January 10th 2008

Marsh Matters : Issue Four December 6th 2007

Marsh Matters : Issue Three November 13th 2007

Marsh Matters : Issue Two October 9th 2007

Marsh Matters : Issue One September 17th 2007

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Howard Vaughan

Information Officer

RSPB Rainham Marshes

Visit www.rspb.org.uk/rainham for more details.

A very high River Thames - 21st March - Howard Vaughan

A calm River Thames on 9th February - Matthew Madgewick

Sunrise on 11th February - Howard Vaughan

Sunset - 4th November - Howard Vaughan

A Potted History:

Rainham Marshes has long been renowned as a bird (and birdwatchers) haven on the outskirts of East London but it always had a rather unsavoury reputation as ‘that rubbish tip with burnt out cars, piles of tyres, bubbling chemical pools, rats, guns, motorbikes and whizzing bullets……..oh and water pipits'. Well things have changed somewhat in the last six years and with an official opening due at the start of November, the RSPB look set to herald in a new era in combining wildlife conservation and people engagement.

How Rainham Marshes came to be…………….

The geo-morphological history of Rainham Marshes started with the build up of silty glacial deposits overlying the Eocene marine London clays and gravels up to about 13000BC after which the cold treeless steppe and tundra habitat was replaced with a covering of birch and pine. However from 6000BC sea-levels rose and during the subsequent Mesolithic and Neolithic epochs, spanning 8000 to 2000BC, the site saw two periods each of inundation followed by dense forestation.

The site has been occupied by man since the Palaeolithic (35000-10000BC) with hand tools found in the nearby Aveley shingle terraces and there is evidence of Bronze and Iron Age (2200BC to AD43) habitation and Roman occupation (AD43 –140) nearby. It is since the Bronze Age that Rainham Marshes began to be farmed but the majority of the area remained un-reclaimed during the Medieval period (AD140 – 1550). Reclamation and the instating of seawalls began in the 14 th century and Wennington Creek was finally sealed off from the Thames in 1691.

From 1550 the site provided high quality grazing and grain production all the way up to 1906 when the War Department created the Purfleet Rifle ranges and in 1915 those at the Rainham end of the site. On Aveley Marsh three Stop Butts were created (part of one still stands) with a Mantlet bank in front of each. This broken linear feature still divides Aveley and Wennington Marshes. The hundred yard shooting ridges can still be seen across the marsh and in the scrub the Cordite store and one of eight anti-aircraft ammunition magazines still stands testament to the military history of the marshes. It was an important air defence location during both wars and a Zeppelin was reputed to have been shot down from the Anti-submarine blockhouse in March 1916 while decoy beacon fires were lit on Wennington during WWII air raids. Most birdwatchers know of the stone barges (and their attendant rock and water pipits) discarded near Coldharbour Point when they became surplus to requirement as a Mulbury Harbour for the D-Day Landings in 1944. The only major changes during the last century were the creation of the Silt Lagoon complex between 1967 and 1987 and the elevated new A13 and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the last ten years.

Recent History:

The RSPB bought Rainham, Wennington and Aveley Marshes from the MoD in July 2000. The reserve covers 870 acres of grazing marsh and silt lagoons and represents 77% of the Inner Thames Marshes SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).  Since its purchase, the RSPB has started the long task of restoring the marshland back to its former glory. This has been a long and complex process as apart from the habitat management there are a whole range of issues relating to the site's previous usage that had to be dealt with prior to the reserve opening to the public. One of the major priorities has been the removal of the unwanted remains of the site's military occupation. This involved not only the removal of a hundred years of accumulated rubbish, but also the clearance of any unexploded ordnance remaining on site. In parallel with this work the programme to restore the marshland itself will always be ongoing.

The habitat work has concentrated in two main areas - water management and grass management. The reserve has a network of some 20 kilometres of ditching many of which were largely unmanaged during most of the military's occupation. As a result, many of the ditches were blocked with years of accumulated silt and vegetation and needed major restoration work to enable them to function as water carriers and wet fences. We have restored them to a condition that is beneficial for both the movement of water and for the suite of species that depend upon healthy ditches such as water vole and aquatic invertebrates such as great silver diving beetle and scarce emerald damselfly. In conjunction this work, we have installed a network of sluices that will allow us to control the water levels across the reserve. These will allow us to operate varying levels in different parts of the site at the same time of year. Our new scrape has been designed as three separate hydrological units to accommodate this practice. This allows us to maximise the available habitat for breeding waders and wintering waterfowl especially when used in conjunction with our cattle which act as our grass management machines allowing us to tightly control the sward height to optimum conditions.

We have three habitat related field-teaching stations across the reserve that have allowed our education team to bring on school groups before the reserve is fully opened and a network of boardwalk and tarmac trails have been created by co-operation between our contractors and our invaluable teams of volunteers that allow full access to a four kilometre walk.

Our state of the art Environment and Education Centre has been constructed to be as green and carbon friendly as possible and incorporates solar and geo-thermal energy and eventually a wind turbine and will no doubt stand as a benchmark for visitors centres across the country. It will house a café, shop, optics, a classroom and even some room for us to work… The future's bright……….the future is…….

The Wildlife:

The birdlife of Rainham Marshes has been documented in the Essex and London Bird Reports since the late 1940's and the habitat and avifauna has not changed ostensibly since that time largely thanks to the protracted stay of the MoD. Since the RSPB acquired the site in 2000 wintering wildfowl numbers have increased dramatically with wigeon now regularly reaching 1000 (from 250), teal up to a peak of 3500 (from 1050) and, most notably from a London context, pintail over 40 with a peak of 88 (from six). The site now holds important numbers of breeding reed bunting, little grebe, meadow pipit and skylark and lapwing and redshank numbers remain stable. stonechat, barn owl, grasshopper warbler and water rail are all notable local breeders and while snipe and yellow wagtail do not currently breed, specific habitat management should hopefully aid a return while Cetti's warblers colonised in 2006. Perhaps penduline tit will colonise before bearded tit? The Thames is cleaner now than it has been since the Industrial Revolution and the Inner Thames wader population has increased dramatically (while conversely diving duck numbers have fallen) and Rainham now hosts up to 1000 wintering dunlin, 300 black-tailed godwits, 20 curlew and a handful of grey plover and turnstone. The local cormorants are often seen with large flatfish and eels and the foreshore maritime vegetation is flourishing. Over 250 bird species have been recorded and during its heyday in the late 1960's and 1970's the silt lagoons were attracting rare waders on a regular basis including such gems as solitary and western Sandpipers. It is hoped that those days may not be two far away again with collared pratincole and sociable plover in 2005 suggesting that the site's rarity days may be returning. Better water control will allow improved conditions throughout the year to accommodate both breeding and passage migrants and no doubt the number of good birds and flyover raptors will increase once we open the doors to the public.

During the summer the reserve is a riot of colour with banks of purple vetch and marsh thistles, yellow bristly ox-tongue, sky-blue chicory and red poppies and in attendance we have had 25 species of butterflies and a host of bees including several nationally scarce species. Dragonflies and damselflies proliferate and 2006 saw the list rise by five species taking the total to 21 with hairy hawkers increasing each year and both red-eyed and emerald damselfly species (re)colonising in 2006.

Water voles continue to do well and Rainham is now in the top three sites in the country. Stoat and weasel are often seen but thankfully no mink have yet been sighted and a monitoring program is already in situ . Their presence would quickly decimate our small mammal population. Other recent colonisers are marsh and common frogs and Chinese mitten crabs have invaded our dykes from the Thames but apparently make good eating!

The Future:

This whole project would have been impossible with out developing close working links with Thurrock District Council, London Borough of Havering, Cleanaway Ltd, Port of London Authority and the neighbouring communities and it is hoped that this green oasis amongst the urban sprawl that is Metropolitan Essex will stand testament to all the hard work injected into the project from those who helped save the marshes and thwarted the development of Euro Disney to the backing of the government and local and national authorities that have made the dream of turning a neglected medieval marsh into a flagship RSPB reserve.

But this is just the beginning, of what may eventually be called Wildspace. Cessation of work on the Cleanaway rubbish tip by 2012 and the subsequent landscaping of the ‘Rainham Chilterns' along with the creation by Havering Council of a Local Nature Reserve encompassing the west end of the site will bring toge the r the rest of the SSSI, the RSPB nature reserve, and a new country park beside the Thames, to create 1500 acres of internationally important ecological green leisure space for the wildlife and people of London and the south east.

The famous Stone Barges where Rock and Water Pipits winter