A Visit To RSPB Arne Nature Reserve - Twitchers We Are Not!!

Friday 18th November 2016

We had a lovely walk at the RSPB Arne Nature Reserve this afternoon,  we had a wander through the reserve, taking in the autumn colours and the fresh smell of peat and pine. We have been to the reserve a number of times and each time we've stopped off at the bird hide which looks out across Poole Harbour.  Usually we are the only ones there but today  both the lower and higher hides were busy.  The tide for once was in so there were lots of birds to spot - this is where we came a bit unstuck, we are quite good I would say at identifying many birds but wading birds is obviously not our thing, there were quiet mutterings around us of sightings of  various birds, none of which we had a clue about.  Luckily there were details and pictures of wading birds in the hide, so we could take a sneaky look at the birds that the twitchers had spotted then try and spot them ourselves!!!  

In the far distance we had dismissed a large group of 'geese' but the reason for the amount of people in the hides was to see the spoonbills!!!! (the so called geese that we had dismissed). I think we can safely say we are not very good twitchers!!  We did however spot oyster catchers, egrets, curlews, and sika deer from the hide.

When we got back to the car park the lady RSPB volunteer that was on duty at the information centre asked if we'd had a nice walk and asked if we had seen the spoonbills.  She told us all about them and now we know that very few (about 70 birds)  come from the Netherlands at this time of year and we had seen about 30 of them, the rest she said could well be at Brownsea Island another of their favourite haunts apparently.

A field of epic cows with even more epic horns of various arrangements!

A leafless silver birch tree covered in ivy almost looking like a fir tree.

Poole Harbour in the distance.

The view from the bird hide and right in the very distance, visible only with binoculars,

spoonbills (zoomed in to infinity and beyond, hence the less than clear photo).

An egret was a bit closer to the hide.

The view from Shipstall Beach.

In front of us, one at a time a group of sika deer crossed the path.  We had to be very quick with the cameras but my photos were absolutely rubbish, these of Steve's however were better, I put the photo of the albino deer in despite it being out of focus just because it's special ..... the deer not the photo!

There were  a few dead old trees about with many holes in, this one as well as holes in it, had some rather large fungi on it.

On the way back to the car, as the light was fading, in the woods we saw eight grey squirrels scratching about in the leaves. I wonder if they were searching for their last meal of the day?

Beautiful colours.

I asked the lady about a fox with a limp and a bad leg that we had seen on a visit in April, we saw it close to the information centre and it didn't seem frightened or bothered by us at all and walked very close past us.  She knew all about the fox and told us that her leg had healed up and she had had a litter in the spring, it was lovely to hear that all appears well with her.

A happy tale after all.

A Tale of a Squirrel and Some Old Plums!

Monday 14th November 2016

I have spent the last half an hour or so watching the grey squirrel that found our garden back in the spring.  Well, this morning he or she is back and has been very busy burying goodies for when he or she gets the munchies in the depths of winter.  First of all it had a good old feed on the sunflower seeds in the bird feeder and then it went into action on our old plum tree. There are dead shrivelled remains of plums all over the tree and the squirrel was easily pulling them off of the ends of some very tiny branches.  Then he or she took the stone and moved to somewhere more appropriate for the weight of a squirrel and chewed off the plum stone to leave just the kernel.  It was then just a matter of burying the kernel in the garden, covering it up and finally doing lots of patting to cover it up - this last move appeared to be quite important going by the patting that went on each time!

Remove outside of  plum stone,

bury kernel,

pat well down,

and start all over again and again and again.....

All we have to hope is that his or her memory is better than mine and that he or she comes back for the goods, otherwise it looks like we'll have a mass of plum trees growing, .... plums anyone?

Swanage Lifeboat Testing The New Slipway

Tuesday 8th November 2016

We were out walking in Swanage today when we unexpectedly came across the Swanage all weather lifeboat testing out the new slipway.  The work continues on the brand new boathouse but the slipway appears to be finished and is undergoing testing this week.  We stood watching as the boat was inched slowly up the slipway, inched back down a bit, then back up a bit more.... and so on!  The boat made it into the new boathouse and then started to come slowly back down. We were hoping to see the boat launched down the slipway but after over an hour and a half of standing around we were getting quite cold so decided to give up.  A video went on to Facebook in the afternoon showing it's first launch in the late afternoon so it was a good job we didn't wait, we'd have been there a long time!!

The Swanage all weather lifeboat, George Thomas Lacy, is the one on the right and a spare one is on the left!  The inshore lifeboat is on the far right.

Testing begins.

Winching slowly up.

A new boathouse is being built to house the larger Shannon class lifeboat.

Studland Heath & Beach

Monday 7th November 2016

Suddenly it's cold, cold enough for a scarf and gloves, cold enough to make my hands itch! Despite the cold we popped out to Studland Heath this afternoon, where the sun was shining, the sky was blue and there were no people.... bliss!  Well, I say there were no people, I'm lying, there were a few.  We walked alongside Little Sea, where we didn't see much bird life but we did see a couple of deer on the far bank some distance away.

Little Sea.

I believe lots of berries mean we're in for a hard winter, well, there were masses and masses of berries on this holly bush so it looks like we're in trouble this winter then!

Little Sea in the afternoon sun from another angle,

and another.

I spied a couple of bulrushes on the edge of the lake, I seem to remember these being everywhere when I was young but I can't say I've seen them about much nowadays.

The deer were on the bank in the distance, so some way off.

We then crossed the heath and walked through the dunes to the beach.

Knoll Beach.

That'll be me then!!

Further on down the beach near the National Trust Cafe,  there was suddenly a mass of seaweed, thick great clumps of it.  It was very strange how it had formed into such deep shapes.

It was about time for a hot chocolate in the cafe but as we got there at 3.30 they were closing up early because there are fewer people about as the Sandbanks ferry is out of action for three weeks from today, ah well, never mind, another day maybe! 

Goldcrests

Thursday 3rd November 2016

I just had to share these photos that I took this morning through the kitchen window of two little goldcrests.  I spotted one a couple of days ago in the tree and today it was back with a friend. They must have been around for well over five minutes and I don't think they stopped moving in that time.  I looked them up in a bird book and it states that they 'are a very small hyperactive species that always seems to be on the move', well, they're not kidding!!  I must have taken a dozen photos before I got one that wasn't a complete blur!  

Got 'em both  - just!!

Beautiful little birds.

Then at lunchtime, to add to the not seen so often in our garden list, along came a nuthatch for a few sunflower seeds!  Lovely!