RSPB Arne – August 2015

As bad as it may sound, I had not heard of RSPB Arne. I have been to Dorset more times than I can remember and never knew it was even there! So at the beginning of August I took a day off from work and headed down to the Dorset Coast.

RSPB Arne is situated 4 miles East of Wareham, overlooking Poole Harbour.

We started the day by taking the walk out to the hides on Coombe Heath.  There is wonderful heathland to walk across with a variety of butterflies and birds to see, along with the ant hills! I happened to have my parents with me on this visit and I have discovered they don’t mix well with hides! If there is nothing to see straight away, they want to move on! However, they did manage to settle for a while at a screen not far from the hide.  With us being the only people there, they were happier being able to talk at a normal level, with me explaining what we were looking at.

After lunch we headed along the other trails towards Shipstal beach.  The trail is quite undulating but a very pleasant walk looking out over the harbour.  On our route back, we were entertained by a number of dragonflies and lucky enough to spot a Sika Deer amongst the trees.

I am planning to visit the site next year along with a trip to Brownsea Island to see the red squirrels.