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.