We had a lovely day full of fabulous wildlife, a day truly full of excellent spots. This morning we went back to Middlebeare Heath near Corfe Castle (we visited here a couple of weeks ago on a dull day) to one of the bird hides overlooking part of Poole Harbour. It was cold and sunny and out of the wind it was a lovely place to just sit and watch wading birds.
After a pub lunch we drove to Arne RSPB Reserve this afternoon where it was a hive of activity. Wood ants were extremely busy building and repairing their ant hills, there were many sika deer out grazing, we heard a cuckoo - the first this spring - the swallows, who are returning in larger numbers now were swooping and feeding above a cattle field and a fox passed us within about 4 or 5 feet - brilliant.
I couldn't stand watching these wood ants for long, just looking at them made me itch!! However, they were amazingly busy, on a different ant hill some ants were carrying about small twigs and bits of fern far bigger than themselves.
This old oak tree has obviously been home to a few birds, whether these holes are in use this year we couldn't tell, despite waiting around for a while to see if anyone returned home!
The view across Poole Harbour from one of the view points.
This is the view from one of the bird hides. We had to use our best stealth skills to get to the hide as a large herd of sika deer were feeding in front of the hide. They were definitely aware we were there but just kept an eye on us and carried on eating.
I'd like to claim this photo as my own, but in the one I took, the deer had already landed! My husband with a far superior camera and lens took this.
Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the hide but as we left the hide some of the deer had moved round to this side so we had a great close up encounter, again they weren't phased by us, they are obviously well used to people.
Back near the visitor centre in the car park we were lucky enough to have a close encounter (within 4 -5 feet) with this beautiful fox, who appeared to have been eating seed from under the bird feeders - and is licking his/her lips in the photo! Again, I think it must be used to being around people as it wandered past us as if we weren't even there. Unfortunately the poor thing was limping on a back leg but it looked in good condition apart from that.
There were a number of well used large feeders around the visitor information centre and once the fox had left the little birds returned.
A fantastic place to visit, taking in various habitats including heathland, a beach, an estuary and woodland, I can thoroughly recommend it.
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