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...

Wild Purbeck Partnership by Alison Turnock, Dorset AONB Officer (Biodiversity) Within a relatively small area (46,000 Ha) Purbeck supports a fantastic array of wildlife. You can see everything from reptiles and amphibians (all six species of native...

Everyday this week we'll be helping you discover more about the true stars of #autumnwatch at RSPB Arne. Today, lets meet one of the world's most distinctive birds - the spoonbill. The World’s Most Dinstinctive Birds by Tony Whitehead...

The critters that call RSPB Arne home are turning in for an early night! They need their beauty sleep for their staring role in #autumnwatch, which broadcasts live from our Dorset reserve from 8pm tomorrow night (Mon 24), BBC Two. But fear not - the...

Feed Your Garden Birds this Autumn/ Winter by Morwenna Alldis Food Glorious Food As temperatures start to drop our garden birds will need a helping hand when it comes to finding food, water and shelter. During the colder months birds need a lot...

As summer comes to a close the reserves wildlife’s starting hot up! There’s no doubt that this time of year most of the attention goes to the Ospreys. In the last week we’ve had up to 5 around the Arne peninsular with the area off Coombe Heath (Middlebere) being by far the best spot to watch for them. Best be there a few hours before high tide as this will give you a good chance of seeing them fishing. A visit out to…

There’s lots to catch up on since our last blog. Continuing the theme from last time, moths are building in numbers and the trap is being run most night. Do pop into the hut first thing in the mornings to see what we’ve caught. Morning visits are being quite productive at the moment with the occasional Cuckoo being heard along with very good numbers of Dartford Warbler and other regular heathland species such as Meadow…

Exciting times here at Arne as finally, after the clear and crisp nights of the winter months, humidity and clouds have returned once again to our night skies. This means one thing and one thing only... Moths! The traps have been dusted off, bulbs replaced where needed, and dodgy electrics ignored by tactical application of plastic bags. We're ready to go. After a couple reconnaissance sessions we've found there are…

So April is here and so are the birds! As are April showers which have soaked a few people out of the reserve today but it's worth the effort! The last couple of days has seen the return of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps which are now joining Chiffchaffs and Swallows which have been building up over the last week. Big excitement yesterday was provided by an Osprey fishing out in Middlebere throughout the day and it’s been…

Who’d have thought I’d be in the office on Easter Saturday writing a blog... It should be lovely and sunny with Arne bustling with enthusiastic visitors spotting all the signs of spring. Well, that’s exactly what happened yesterday!

It was a stunning day and provided everyone with the full Arne experience. The car park area was full of bird song, feeders covered in Siskin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Nuthatch…

It’s been one of the, if not the major talking point of probably the past year at Arne... Therefore I’m very pleased to say that our new shop and café has opened its doors to visitors for the first time today and it’s gone down a storm. There’s been an overwhelmingly positive atmosphere across the whole reserve, not only brought on by the opening of the shop and café but also because spring has sprung…

March is upon us and the days are starting to appear more spring like, however, we’ve just had some sleet at Arne! Snow is pretty unusual at Arne so sleet is just as exciting for us here. Bit sad really...

So on with some sightings. Some winter visitors have already departed with other species starting to make an appearance. The most notable disappearance is the avocets which seem to have mostly left. Spoonbills…

The weather has remained somewhat up and down since the last sightings blog during our Big Garden Birdwatch, which we hope you’ve now submitted your results! This week has seen some rather stunning wintery mornings at Arne with frost covering the gorse and heather which is in stark contrast to today’s rather damp weather. However, whatever the weather the birds and other wildlife are still here to be enjoyed. Over the…

We are seeking a team of enthusiastic volunteers to help run our new shop, cafe and wildlife garden, which is due to open in March 2016!

Our brand new shop, cafe and wildlife garden are taking shape and the building work is nearing completion. We are aiming to open in mid-March, so pencil a visit in your diaries for the Easter Holidays.

We are now seeking a team of special volunteers who can help us make these new facilities…

Big Garden Birdwatch 2016 is here! The time to scrutinize every nook and cranny of your garden looking for as many different birds as you can in the space of one hour is upon us, and here at Arne we’re no stranger to it. You might think that the idea of taking an hour out to bird watch from the comfort of the visitor hut, with a cup of tea in hand and the log burner on, is one that we’d naturally shun and shy away from…