RSPB Arne (Friday 23rd September 2016)

I met up with the Spotlight Kid at this Dorset nature reserve to celebrate his recent birthday. It has recently been upgraded with a new café and walkways and lies east of Wareham overlooking Arne Bay and Poole Harbour. I arrived having felt as if I had completed an arduous rally as the sat-nav's eco-route had taken me down many single track lanes with few passing places and across lots of busy A-roads including an almost impossible right turn onto the extremely busy fast-moving A303 at Winterbourne Stoke. On the plus side I had crossed a river bridge at Spetisbury where 25-30 young swans were peacefully gliding among the weeds.

There are three separate walks at RSPB Arne and we did all three, two before lunch, plus some detours, and one after our lunch sitting outside the café in the warm sunshine. One of the first sights we encountered was a herd of English Longhorns including this pair of calves coming towards us on the path.

The undisputed highlight for me was a view of my first osprey, sitting above  a nest provided on a pole by the RSPB, consuming a large fish (probably mullet). It was too far away for a photograph but a couple let us look through their telescope so we had great views of it. At the hide were, amongst others, little egrets, cormorants, shelduck, black-tailed and bar-tailed godwits, curlews and a pheasant. There were two other firsts for me, both seen back at the car park: a firecrest and a spotted flycatcher.

The drive home was more straightforward as I reset the sat-nav for 'Fastest Route'. I paused at Wareham for fifteen minutes beside the River Frome.

L.
26.9.2016 (1005 hr)

Blip #1933 (#2183 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #2383
LOTD #1168 (#1292 including archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-1 and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

RSPB Arne, 23 September 2016 (Flickr album)
A Visit To Wareham, 23 September 2016 (Flickr album)

Cattle series
Dorset series
Landscape series
Outdoor Places I Have Sat In series

Lozarhythm of the Day:
Pixies - Tenement Song (2016)

One year ago:
Birmingham Blipmeet