Moorcroft Water Vole Haven

The RSPB Rainham Marshes Collection

Just beyond the Thames Barrier in East London, RSPB Rainham Marshes, once a Ministry of Defence firing range, now explodes with wildlife which thrives on the ancient grazing mashes of the Thames Estuary. Its mix of shallow lagoons, scrub, lowland grazing marsh dissected by ditches, reedbed and woodland provides habitat for a wide range of birds and scarce wetland plants and insects.

The mysterious and ecologically important RSPB Rainham Marshes, which set the natural drama for Charles Dickens to write Great Expectations, is a wetland world of mists and mud flats of some 870 astounding acres. With sheer pride, Moorcroft now unveils this great RSPB success story in the new RSPB Rainham Marshes Collection, allowing you to quite literally stroll along the boardwalks and viewing platforms. It is here where old shooting butts become viewing posts for herons; teals bathe in tranquil lagoons; Red-Listed birds, like Lapwings, thrive along the muddy banks, and curious little Water Voles scuttle within the reed beds as the Shrill Carder bees buzz in air filled with Ruddy Darters and Brimstones.

Water Vole Haven

Designer: Kerry Goodwin

Shape:  PLQ11

Edition: Numbered

With an awareness that Water Voles are a flagship species, RSPB Rainham Marshes have worked hard to create the highest density of voles in the United Kingdom. By protecting the habitats that Water Voles rely on, they have also helped a wealth of other wetland species to survive.

Along the water’s edge, dense green swathes of reeds sway in the summer breeze. Above their rustle and hiss, Curlews sing as damselflies and butterflies provide colour over the mud and sand. Kerry takes you from the feathery margins of low-lying Thames River floodplains into the heart of this wetland reserve, as she richly rewards you with a curious little Water Vole clutching the reeds with twitching whiskers.