Tootle Pip

A showery start to the day delayed our setting off, and we didn't actually get to RSPB Arne until  late morning.  Often when I set off for a wildlife watching destination I have something in mind that I would like to see, even though I know that there is an awful lot of luck involved in actually seeing it.

On this occasion the two birds I really hoped I might spot were the  Dartford Warbler and the pair of Opreys that are nesting in the Poole area and can currently be seen fishing the Wareham channel .... if you are really lucky.  As it was I saw neither species, but did see plenty of other birds, butterflies and dragonflies :-)

I've put up a couple of shots of meadow pipits taken late morning.  The main is the pipit in flight, the extra shows one with a cranefly in its beak that it is taking back to feed its brood.  In the afternoon the wind started to build, which is never ideal for wildlife watching.  The final extra is of a male stonechat trying to stay on his pine tree as he gets blown around.

That evening we took the bird watching boat trip from Swanage past Durlston along the Jurassic Coast.  By now we had 25+ knots of wind and the sea was choppy, so I left the camera behind, which turned out to be the right decision.  The deck was swaying a fair bit and I don't think that I could have held the focus still enough to get any decent pictures - as it was it was tricky with just binoculars.  However, we did see Gannets diving, kittiwakes, guillemots, razor bills and fulmars as well as the real prize, one of the 6 pairs of breeding puffins on the South Coast.

By the time we got back to Swanage 2 hours later we were absolutely frozen and raced off to one of the local pubs to recover over a pint of beer.