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…

Suddenly it's the 18th on January, two and a half weeks into the new year! With visits from various year listers, day racers and new year visitors we've had a nice variety of reports in the last few weeks. The weather has taken a severe nosedive towards a proper winter, Clear skies, Ice and Sunshine have made for a few glorious days to be out. Our Raptor weekend was a great Success with 6 out of the 7 wintering raptors…

Barmy temperatures aren’t making it feel particularly Christmassy at the moment but it’s now just around the corner! So firstly, happy Christmas from all of us at Arne. We hope to see lots of you over the Christmas period, the walks at Arne are particularly good for walking off the chocolate and the roast potatoes...

The reserve will be open all over the holidays with the visitor hut being closed Christmas…

It’s about time we gave you a little update on our recent sightings from Arne. The range of species being seen is strongly suggesting that winter is here. Ducks, Grebes and Divers are become a frequent sight from Shipstal Point. Goldeneye are becoming more numerous, as are Great Crested Grebe and Red-breasted Mergansers. The odd Great Northern Diver has been seen plus recently a much rarer Red-throated Diver (26/11).…

Species focus

As the winter is approaching we’re currently battling against some rather soggy and blustery conditions, it’s sad to see visitor numbers drop so fast from the hundreds on a beautiful sunny weekend day to 7 on a damp and dreary Thursday. To fill our time a little better a brainstorming session was had and the outcome is we’re going to produce a weekly species focus blog, this is in addition to our regular…

I was given 2 hours and set a challenge, find me as many species as you can in that time frame. Now Arne is a big reserve and it holds a lot of bird species, though I’m sure most will be aware, when you try and see lots of them in a short space of time they seemingly vanish. Prime targets for my client were Dartford Warbler, Woodlark and Spoonbill; although I made no guarantees I was happy to reckon on clearing up!…

Temperatures remain ridiculously high for the season though this week we’ve had our fair share of rain. Hence why I’m in the office sheltering at the moment! But in spite of that, visitors have ventured out to Arne in the hope of a few exciting encounters. Raptors have again been creating most of the interest with Hen Harrier and several Marsh Harriers putting in almost daily appearances. Merlin equally as frequent along…

You may not have noticed but the British weather can sometimes be a little wet. Yesterday our intrepid volunteers in spite of the pouring raining led a select group of visitors out on our weekly ‘Discover Arne’ guided walk. We really hoped their valiant efforts would be worthwhile as rainy days can often lead to an exciting encounter. After all, the birds are still here in the rain, it’s just the visitors that can be…

Firstly a quick update on recent sightings. Autumn migration is in full swing and there’s lots to be excited about here at Arne. The car parks been alive with the calls of Firecrest, even this morning in the rain and wind. Flocks of finches including Redpoll and Crossbill have been traveling overhead. Warblers such as Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps are on the move and joining them yesterday was this lovely little critter…

Guided walks are always a popular way to discover more about a place like Arne. Some species can be tricky to see and someone with lots of experience can be invaluable when trying to spot something like a Dartford Warbler or separating those pesky waders. Our well attended Wednesday ‘Discover Arne’ walks are good but often in a larger group spotting everything can be tricky. That’s why this Autumn/Winter you can hire…

Autumn is well and truly here! Days are getting shorter and somewhat cooler which means birds are on the move big time. Wader numbers are continuing grow with Black-tailed Godwit now the most numerous wader. There are probably over 800 around the Arne peninsular at the moment. Dunlin numbers are on the up and this is a good time of year to scan through carefully as there could be something a little more exciting amongst…

As Part of National Moth Night we at Arne Will be holding an open the trap event on the morning of Saturday the 12^th Of September, although a little short notice we’re sure a few of you would like to come and join in. We’re planning to run 3 Traps over night aiming to trap Migrants species like Silver-Y, Dark Sword-grass and the much more sought after Convolvulus Hawkmoth. The main event is organised by Atropos and Butterfly…

We’ve got a busy few weeks ahead of us here at Arne. Autumns a very exciting time to visit Arne. You never know what you’re going to see. Ospreys have been a real feature over the last week which bodes well for our...

Raptor Weekend!

5^th and 6^th September – 10am until 4pm

We’ll be opening up viewpoints at the best raptor watching spots at Arne to help you get some amazing views of these magnificent…

We’ve got a busy few weeks ahead of us here at Arne. Autumns a very exciting time to visit Arne. You never know what you’re going to see. Ospreys have been a real feature over the last week which bodes well for our...

Raptor Weekend!

5^th and 6^th September – 10am until 4pm

We’ll be opening up viewpoints at the best raptor watching spots at Arne to help you get some amazing views of these magnificent…

As the bird watching clock ticks onto Autumn, we’re beginning to see why at Arne is such a great reserve for not just our resident species. Over the last week or so Willow Warblers have been a prominent feature on our daily sightings board. This little yellow Warbler begins its migration at the end of July weighing in at around 10 grams. It’s amazing to think that it’s heading for rich wintering grounds south of the Sahara…

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to tell you about the lovely work I’ve been doing for the past week... it involves running around the heath and identifying beautiful butterflies! Before I start rambling I wanted to teach you the Spanish word for butterfly which is mariposa! I’ve always thought it is a beautifully sounding word...

So, RSPB ecologists need information about the abundance of Grayling butterflies…

Well, given today’s weather you’d be forgiven for thinking it is the middle of autumn. This weekend’s birds sightings are starting to suggest that the autumn migration is getting underway. Osprey is now becoming a regular fixture with Middlebeare channel being a favoured spot. Wader numbers are starting to grow with Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew all starting to appear in numbers plus the odd Whimbrel has…

Hi everyone! Today I want to tell you about the amazing time I had last weekend, I had the pleasure to help at a Big Wild Sleepout! It took place at Arne and we invited 72 people to camp on the Friday night, parents and children from local school in Poole. The RSPB organisers were aiming to engage families to have fun in nature and raise awareness of conservation.  The children were about 5-6 years old, they were lovely…

Hi everyone! I am Julia Lopez Delgado, I come from Gran Canaria and am currently studying Environmental Biology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As part of my degree I had the option to go on a placement for the summer... and what better place than the RSPB to learn?

I’ve been helping for a few weeks so far and I have been lucky enough to visit work at Arne, Radipole Lake and Chesil Beach in that time. Therefore…

So far July has been very productive for numbers of species recorded at the reserve. Birds are typically quiet still, most will have finished breeding by now and are getting stuck into moulting. This makes them very elusive which is probably a good thing as they aren’t going to be looking their best! However, there are a whole range of interesting and rare insects that frequent Arne, some of which have been making an…

In our last blog we totally forgot to include these super pictures taken by some of our recent visitors to Arne, so apologies for that! First up we’ve got these superb Grass Snake pics from Abbey Louis. Not sure of the story but imagining a chase between the toad of the snake.

We’ve mentioned our rather showy Water Voles at Shipstal ponds but we’ve yet to actually show you them. The wait is over thanks to Phil…

Without trying to sound like a broken record our moth and Butterfly themed blog posts must continue, as the temperatures have begun to rise as have the number of reports of Silver-studded Blues. Coombe Heath is by far the best place to encounter this pretty little butterfly. Our moth trap openings in the morning have been becoming more and more productive; although migration has slowed the number of resident species has…

So June is well and truly upon us which means some of our non-avian friends are taking the lime light away from the likes of the Dartford Warblers and the Spoonbills. Our moth traps have been particularly interesting with some notable and very welcome visitors. Lots of wildlife migrates and moths are no exceptions. So far the migrant species we’ve recorded have mainly been ‘brown type’ moths but the stories behind them…