The weather was sunny on Monday morning so we could not miss the opportunity to get out for a few hours and what better place than RSPB Arne. We had some torrential rain over the weekend and the River Stour was in flood and when we got to Arne we found it very wet underfoot, alright if you had boots on which we did. We went with no expectations but we had a very good day seeing some of our usual wildlife like Sika deer and of course Grey Squirrels and also a couple of birds we had never seen before.

There were plenty of small birds in the trees as we made our way through the woods. Longtailed tits busily going from tree to tree and we were lucky enough to see Goldcrests down on the dead Bracken feeding.

Note: click on any picture for a bigger view

We were heading towards the Shipstal ponds across the heath when we spotted a herd of Sikas near the ponds, hinds and Stags, they blended in the vegetation very well the stags antlers looked like the branches of the bushes and it was difficult to count how many there were.

We walked past the ponds and Rod spotted a Water Vole swimming I saw the ripples but nothing else, we stopped there for a while but we didn’t see him again.

We than went to Shipstal Hide there wasn’t anything too close but there were a large group of Spoonbills on the sandbank a little distance away and also a flock of Avocets. There were also quite a few Shellduck grazing on the marshes.

We walked back over the heath so we were looking over Poole harbour, swimming in the sea was a bird that looked very much like a Grebe, I took a picture of it and then asked the RSPB ranger when we got back to the park what it was. He identified it as a Red Breasted Merganser from the back of the camera and of course when I saw it at home on the computer I noticed the beak was very much like the Hooded Merganser in Radipole Lake. This one my first sighting of this bird.

The highlight for me was seeing a Dartford Warbler, I knew they were at Arne but I had never been lucky enough to see them. I was watching something in the sea when I spotted this small bird flitting about on the Gorse my instinct told me it as something special and sure enough it was the Dartford Warbler and my camera was poised ready to take a picture and I managed to capture it, a beautiful little bird that is coming back after the population crashed in the 60’s.