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RSPB Arne T

Going Back to my Roots! By Michael Wilson, RSPB Visitor Experience Officer

RSPB Arne holds a special place in my heart as it was where I started my first paid contract with the RSPB. In March 2011, I was employed on a 6 month contract as a Visitor Experience Officer, and fortunately for me I stayed for 3 years.

RSPB Arne is one of favourite RSPB reserves and I was so lucky to be able to spend my days working there. Having spent most of my life living in Northamptonshire it was a bit of revelation moving to the heathlands of Dorset and experiencing completely different wildlife (and cider!) to what I was used to.

From nightjars to sundew, and sand lizards to green tiger beetles, I came across so much that I had never seen before - and the best thing was that working as a Visitor Experience Officer I got to show this all to visitors on a daily basis.

I have got too many memories to talk about them all, but here are a few that still stick with me.

Camera Shy Snakes: RSPB Arne is home to the UK’s rarest reptile the smooth snake and during my time in Dorset I was lucky enough to have a license to survey these elusive creatures and show them to visitors. There is large survey area on an area of heathland with over a hundred coregated tins under which reptiles can hide and as I have said they can be tricky to find and this was certainly the case when a BBC crew came to film for Escape to the Country and yes you’ve guessed 100 tines and not a snake in site – but that’s reptile hunting for you.

Wild Lizard Chase!: On another occasion we had a rather excited visitor arrive at the welcome building with some picture of what they thought was a very unusual lizard on a tree. Turned out that someone was leading us on a bit of plastic lizard hunt!

Snowed Under: In January 2012 I had a little bit of trouble getting up the lane through the snow but I battle through on foot only to find that I had been replaced!

Sneaky Feasting: There were always a lot of bird feeders at RSPB Arne and we had a food store at the back of the Welcome building, to top the feeders up regularly. For weeks were kept on finding chewed up nuts in one of the bins and took us ages to track down the culprit……

I moved from RSPB Arne two years ago, but I still work for the RSPB at our Ham Wall nature reserve in Somerset, which is another fantastic place to be. But RSPB Arne still holds lots of special memories and was where it all started for me.