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Wildlife Walk at Rainham Marshes

Join our fabulous team for a walk at Rainham Marshes, as we take you on a wonderful wildlife walk around the marshes. Every season sees a different suite of wildlife for you to encounter!

Rainham Marshes is an important area for wildlife, and a great place for visitors all year round - you can expect to see breeding wading birds and a variety of invertebrates in spring and summer. Also look out for lapwings, redshanks, wheatears, stonechats, kingfishers, hobbies, curlews, swifts, sand martins, house martins, warblers, marsh harriers, reed buntings, water voles, damselflies, butterflies, bees (such as the shrill carder bee and the brown-banded carder bee) and grass snakes.

In winter, you can see large flocks of wildfowl. Keep an eye out for marsh harriers, golden plovers, water and rock pipits, little egrets, snipe, chiffchaffs, curlews, lapwings, dunlins, redshanks, shelducks, peregrines, kingfishers, short-eared owls, stoats and weasels.

Our friendly guides will take you for a stroll around the reserve to see the highlights of the season's wildlife.

You don't need to book in advance - you can just come along and pay on the day.

Adult £5 (£4 members), child £3 (member £2). Please bring your membership cards with you. Normal reserve entrance fees apply for non-members. 

Binoculars available for hire. Please ensure you arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the event start time.

Wear weather appropriate clothing, and meet us at the reception desk in the visitor centre.

Our walks are usually 2 hours long, but if we see lots it could take us longer to get back to the centre - do let your guide know how long you want to be out exploring.

Rainham Marshes is in Purfleet - which is just a few minutes walk from Purfleet station, or just off the A13 and M25 J30/31.

We have a cafe, shop, visitor centre, toilets, an adventure playground, four hides, and good hard paths around the reserve. The main visitor trail is a circular route of 2.4 miles.

The picture shows people looking for wildlife on the River Wall of the reserve. David Levenson (rspb-images.com)

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