The Agglestone Rock on Godlingston Heath

Wednesday 31st August 2016

This was a new walk for us this afternoon.  Although it was dull and overcast it was a pleasant walk skirting round the edge of Studland Golf Course and on to the Agglestone Rock, details of which can be found here.  It's quite weird, just there all on it's own!

The Agglestone Rock with Poole Harbour beyond.

The pink tinge of heather.

Approaching the Rock.....

......and from the other side!

Very odd in the middle of the heath!

I'm glad that's nice and clear then!!!

The sun put in a brief appearance.

In the distance, Old Harry Rocks in the sunshine.

Meanwhile, back in our neck of the woods, rain was threatening so we marched on a bit quick back to the car.

Swanage in Summer - Doesn't Get Any Better!

Tuesday 30th August 2016

When the sun shines in Swanage, (and to be fair, even when it doesn't) there really is no better place, it's so easy to get away from the crowds on the main beach and relax in peace and quiet by just walking a short distance. Over the Summer there have been all types of boats moored in the bay and over the last few weeks I have taken a few photos to show some of them and to show off the beach itself.

 A view of Peveril Point that we particularly like when we walk in to Swanage the 'long' way.

All is calm at Peveril Point.

Then, moving on to the North End of the beach, I think this is Moonfleet of Swanage out in the bay.

You can see how quiet and beautiful it is.  (a great spot as long as the tide is out, you can't easily access this part of the beach when the tide is in and it's easy to get cut off)

 A Black Headed Gull (with a white head at this time of year!) drinking from the freshwater stream that crosses the beach, it was a hot day and it seemed quite thirsty.

Back at the other end of Swanage, more boats taken on a walk along the pier - on 19th August.

They say not to take photos into the sun, well I did anyway and I like it!

The old pier.

The Old Pier and a few boats, the orange one on the left is the diving school boat and the orange one on the right is the Swanage All Weather Lifeboat.

And here we have a board showing information on the dive sites that the divers visit.

Just look how clear the sea is, Swanage at it's best!

A Bullfinch Pops By

Thursday 9th June 2016

One evening this week a pair of bullfinches were featured on Springwatch and it set me thinking about the last time we saw a bullfinch in our garden.  It seems like ages ago, and looking it up it was, in January 2009.  Guess who turned up in our garden the very next day and who has visited again today a few times.....

........... a beautiful male bullfinch.

Talk about a coincidence!!   On Springwatch they explained that a pair of bullfinches, unlike other birds, do things together, however there has been no sign of Mrs Bullfinch as yet.  He certainly brings a lot of colour to the feeder, you can't miss him!  

NB on Friday 10th June we saw four different finches on the feeders - goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch and bullfinch - brilliant!

Church Knowle Near Corfe Castle

Thursday 2nd June 2016

It was a lovely afternoon, sunny and warm, just right for a short walk and a spot of geocaching. There is a circuit of about seven caches close to the village of Church Knowle, so we parked there and headed off uphil!  

The footpath looks a bit overgrown, a bit different to the last time we were here nearly three months ago.

The adult sheep seem to have been recently shorn and certainly don't look as cute as their little lambs!

We haven't been geocaching much of late so it was good to get back in to it today, however finding some of these proved quite tricky and one or two took us quite a while to find but we persisted and eventually found eight out of eight.

The fence on the edge of this field appears to be in a zig zag pattern all the way up but it's made by the shadows of the fence posts on the ground, epic!

Another geocache found at this location on a hairpin bend.

My initials spotted on the hillside!!

There are masses of flowers out in the hedgerows, summer's here!

Walking back down towards Church Knowle.

There are some fantastic colours in the countryside, this tree was a striking yellowy green but it hasn't come out well in this photo.  

We walked back into the village to find a final geocache.  We had to use a fair amount of stealth retrieving this one as it was opposite a house where a lady was sitting in the sun watching us.  Luckily we've done a lot of caches over the years and we've got very good at being stealthy!!

Baby Robins - An Update

Monday 2nd May 2016

It's been two weeks since the baby robins fledged from a nest in a plum tree in our garden. Today we saw two of the babies in the garden at once so we know at least two of the four are still alive and well.  They were still being fed by the adult but one seemed to be looking for food himself so hopefully soon they will be independent and the poor parents can get a break before they start on the next brood!

These photos were taken today through the kitchen window (which also had rain on it - excuses over!!)  so are a little hazy. 

Back in the plum tree where the nest is!

Arne RSPB Reserve, Deer, a Fox & First Cuckoo of the Year

Thursday 28th April 2016

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.

Kimmeridge Bay

Tuesday 26th April 2016

Well, it's been cold the past few days but today was on another level, it was like being back in January, the wind was that strong and freezing.  We walked from Kimmeridge Bay up past Clavell Tower and on along the south west coast path for a couple of miles.  Some of the footpath is a bit too close to the edge of the cliff for my liking in places, especially in a strong wind!  We were lucky enough to see a pair of peregrine falcons swooping about above us as we set off so that was a bit of a highlight.  

Kimmeridge Bay

Clavell Tower - for info see here

Walking towards Chapman's Pool

We then returned to Kimmeridge for a good old mooch about on the beach looking for fossils/

Around lunchtime, unbelievably, we had a quick flurry of snow and sleet and it came over very dark but the afternoon brightened up but it remained icy in the wind.