Come down and snipe some ice

What a beautiful day in Dorset.

Thought I'd do a little post to let you know about one of my favourite birds that is astoundingly easy to see on the reserve at the moment. Look up this little wader and a bird book and you'd see words like elusive and shy, banded around but it couldn't be further from that at Radipole at the moment. I'm talking about snipe.

Andy Hay (rspb-images)

Just take a wander into the Visitor Centre at the moment take a peek out of the window and you could see over 80 of these 'shy' and 'elusive' stunning birds with their hilariously long beaks mulling around on the edge of the reeds. Be careful not to confuse them with the other larger wader out on the water at the moment; the black tailed godwit (watch out for a white stripe across its wings when it flies).

And if the lure of the snipe wasn't enough we are giving away free icecreams (whilst stocks last) to visitors (if you want one of course- we won't force them upon you). Its a very exciting time for Radipole at the moment; its just a few more days until the last day of trading from the shop (there are many brilliant deals to be had at the moment) and the visitor centre is being closed for long awaited improvements on the 16th Jan. When it re opens a couple of months later we can all look forward to a brand new visitor centre with some exciting media walls showing live and recorded footage from around the reserve and a serve yourself cafe amongst other things, it's going to be very good.