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...

RSPB Lychett Bay - delivering for nature and for people by Rob Farrington (RSPB) and Paul Morton (Birds of Poole Harbour) Lytchett Bay is a large tidal bay in the north of Poole Harbour. To the west of the bay is a newly created wetland reserve...

The Grand #autumnwatch Finale at RSPB Arne by Jenny Shelton, RSPB The final show of this year’s Autumnwatch continued to champion all life, from tiny wood mice to RSPB Arne’s impressive sika stags and everything in between. It brought us...

Bat-Tastic at RSPB Arne by RSPB's Chris Baker (all photos kindly supplied by the Dorset Bat Group) Twelve of the UK’s 17 breeding bat species are found at RSPB Arne nature reserve: barbastelle, Bechstein’s, Brandt’s, brown long...

Sounds Natural (England)! by Natural England's Bob Ashington Open Your Ears to the Wild Sound of Dorset! Natural England tells us about their fantastic SoundCloud project. Back in April, Bob Ashington – a National Nature Reserve Manager...

Connecting Children to Nature in Bournemouth and Poole Green Spaces by Anneka Schofield, RSPB Dorset Schools Outreach Officer As part of the Aldi-funded Green Space Outreach Project we have been busy connecting 1,702 children to nature across Bournemouth...

Bringing Colour to the Borough...of Poole! Poole Borough Council tell us how about their Meadows project The Borough of Poole has had a lift of colour in recent years, with areas of flowers brightening daily commutes, bringing pleasure to many and...

Sheep-Pigs at RSPB Arne! by Chris Baker, RSPB South West Is it a sheep or is it a pig? It’s a question many people have asked when confronted by a beast that has a sheep’s woolly fleece, but looks like a pig. The large, boar-like animals...

RSPB's Jamie Wyver, gives us the low-down on last night's third airing of #autumnwatch at Dorset's glorious RSPB Arne nature reserve... The show begun with a look at RSPB Arne’s sika deer – I’m happy to add that I saw...

Make a Splash for Wildlife this Autumn by Installing a Pond in Your Garden by Morwenna Alldis Installing a pond into your garden is one of the most effective ways that you can encourage wildlife to take up residence in your greenspace. After all, most...

Birds of Poole Harbour, School Bird Boats by Paul Morton Since 2008 an initiative has been running in Poole Harbour to get local primary school children out on the water and to get them to connect with their local environment. Initially funded by a...

Want to get to know a nature reserve well? Spend the night there! By Tom Clarke, SE Dorset Project Development Officer I’ve been working for the RSPB in Dorset for six years. I don’t know RSPB Arne by day particularly well, having never...

Nature - Good for the Mind, Body and Soul by Neil Stevens Centre Director of Livability, Holten Lee There is no doubt that being out and about in nature is good for our wellbeing. There are an increasing number of scientific studies that demonstrate...

Fingerprinting RSPB Arne’s Smooth Snakes! By Chris Baker The line of double dots down a smooth snake’s back is like a fingerprint, an identification fail-safe with each pattern, unique to an individual animal. All smooth snakes that have...

There was definitely a culinary flavour to tonight’s show, which was a veritable feast of autumnal wildlife by RSPB's Jamie Wyver Juicy red berries, said Chris, appear on evergreen plants or those which keep their green leaves late in the...

Saving Portland’s Rare Silver-studded Blues The Isle of Portland is home to a rare form of the Silver-studded Blue Butterfly. Silver-studded Blue populations have declined on Portland since the 1990s as the bare ground habitat that is required...

Go Bananas For Dorset’s Butterflies this Autumn by Morwenna Alldis We normally associate butterflies with lazy summer days and a kaleidoscope of colour, as our gardens burst into full bloom. However, it’s really important that we spare...

The Great Heath – an urban living landscape for Dorset by Nicky Hoar, The Great Heath Learning and Interpretation Officer, Dorset Wildlife Trust

The Great Heath partnership was formed by Dorset Wildlife Trust in response to the amazing opportunity to buy 1500 acres of heathland, woodland, meadow, wetland, harbour and marsh stretching from Lytchett in the west to Parley in the east. With £2.7 million from the Heritage…

Memories of RSPB Arne by Paula Warren, RSPB South Dorset Local Group Committee Member I t is over thirty years since my husband and I first started visiting RSPB Arne. Back then the car park was in a field opposite the Church. We used to take my mother...

Possibly the Cutest Residents of RSPB Arne! Sika deer were introduced into the UK from the Far East in the 1860s. It is claimed all our feral sika are descended from a single family in Eire. In Dorset they were brought to Brownsea Island in the 1890s...

RSPB's Katie Phoenix gives the low-down on last night's brilliant debut #autumnwatch at RSPB Arne!

Finally, after weeks of anticipation, we were so excited to see the famous trio return to our TV screens last night, with Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games hosting the first fantastic night of Autumnwatch, live from RSPB Arne!

And the show was just as exciting, weird and wonderful as expected…

Create a Toad Abode this Autumn by Morwenna Alldis With winter just around the corner, our UK frogs and toads will be readying themselves for hibernation. The drop in temperature in our garden ponds and local waterways is very dangerous for our amphibian...

The Ladybird Spider in Dorset by Andrew Whitehouse, Buglife Perhaps the UK’s most spectacular spider, the ladybird spider (eresus sandaliatus) is also one of our most endangered. This amazing looking creature is only found on a handful of heathland...

PhD Student, Anna Schilling is studying the leprosy recently discovered in the red squirrel population that call Brownsea Island home (managed by the National Trust and the Dorset Wildlife Trust ). Anna tells us more in the below interview ... In March...

RSPB Arne is Poetry in Motion to Me! by Dinah Johnson, RSPB Dorset Volunteer If you have the urge to volunteer for a charity then I would strongly recommend contacting RSPB Arne. You really have to see the reserve to believe it. It is truly magical and...