The mild winter and warm spring this year have provided us with a bumper crop fp our orchids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year there were 21 Bee Orchids at Radipole and a Lodmoor record of 11.  Our last bumper crop was 32 Bee Orchids, which occurred in 2009.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Spotted Orchids have done very well this year over on Lodmoor where a record 83 were counted on the path near the viewing…

Spending many hours on Chesil Beach watching over the little tern colony over the last two months, it was inevitable that at some point my jumbled mind would turn to the matter of how many pebbles form the 18 mile long shingle bank, and furthermore, how far would they reach if laid side by side in a row? I’m surely not the first person to embark on this particular avenue of displacement activity, but like a small, white…

It's been a few weeks since the reserve and new Discovery Centre dissappeared under water. But against all the odds we have not only managed to clear the initial mess, reopen most of the trails, but also give the centre a deep clean completly clear the space and dry the space out. In short we will be open for the olympics!

Sure we won't have the flashy cameras and all the other pleasures we were getting used to but…

Invertebrate life must have taken a bit of pounding during the recent rains and flooding – anything that couldn’t fly or crawl to a dry refuge quickly enough would presumably have met a premature and soggy end. With this in mind it was heart-warming to see the evidence of one uninterrupted life-cycle within the nettle patch just outside the back garden gate. I’m not talking about the hungry mosquitos that enthusiastically…

For a few nights in the run-up to the recent flood, whenever the weather looked suitable we set up the moth trap in the back garden, which is very close to the Radipole reserve. Some nights were more productive than others, depending on the weather, but a couple of attempts gave us a few interesting specimens to pick out from the catch. Some of them one might dismiss on first sight as obscure “little brown jobs”, and…

 

More on last weekends flood. This time I’m going to let the pictures tell the story.

Also worth pointing out that the July optics events (14/15th and 21/22nd) are CANCELLED.

The bat nights may go ahead subject to weather (13th and 20th) which we will assess on the day.

The view across Swannery Carpark on Sunday morning.

As we got nearer I got the feeling that we might not be opening for business.

And…

Saturday 7th

It started like any other weekend shift really. Sure there was a lot of heavy rain falling but that seems to be par for the course this summer. I was soon to discover however, that this would be no ordinary weekend at work. Spring tides, phenomenally heavy rainfall and driving wind were all to conspire against us. My first inkling that things were happening was around 10 o’clock when I received a phone call…

Another colourful point of interest for those who peer into the lower tiers of greenery, as well as scan the skies and trees for the slightest movement, has been the emergence of some spectacular moths along the start of the hide path at Radipole. Over the last couple of weeks, the translucent papery cocoons have been concealing the amazing metamorphosis within and over the weekend the burnet moths have revealed themselves…

It's half term in Dorset so in celebration of the counties children;s freedom our very own Amber Phoenix has come up with some rather exciting looking week day activities. Head down to the new Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre at Radipole Lake any time of day monday to friday this week and bring the family. Learn how to make homes for bees, feeders for butterflies (there are plenty of both around Radipole in the sunshine…

The hedgerows around Radipole are very abundant and colourful now as we move into early summer.  This is the time when Radipole's orchids start to appear by the paths.  I counted three Southern Marsh Orchids in the early stages of flowering on the Buddleia Loop this afternoon.  I hope plenty more are on their way.  The Bee Orchid I passed twice this afternoon before I noticed it in the grass by the path to the North Hide…

At this time of year the Radipole hedgerows are starting to come in to their own.  One particular family of plants is the Carrot Family or the Umbelliferae (now known as Apiaceae).  These plants are easily identified by the umbrella shaped arrangement of their flowers.  However, umbelliferae flowers can look confusingly alike at first.  The photos below will assist you in sorting your parsleys from your hemlocks as you wander…

Exotic wildlife has abounded on The Weymouth Wetlands this week, befitting the welcome sunshine in which we contentedly bask. The Great Reed Warbler has understandably generated plenty of interest and - as Rob mentioned - he has been merrily singing in close-ish proximity to the new viewing facilities.

Yet another wonderfully elegant, (& most appropriately named) Black-winged Stilt was spotted over Radipole this morning…

Well I've been lucky enough to have spent the last two days touring various groups round both Arne and Radipole in glorius sunshine and what a mad mix of species there was on show!

I have to start off with the big brown noisy bird in the Radipole reeds - the Great Reed Warbler. For those of you like me, who knows very little about rare birds this chap is basically a regular reed warbler that has swallowed growth…

Chesil Beach hosts the only breeding colony of the Little Tern in the south-west. This beautiful bird is indeed little - about half the size of a common tern - and considerably less common. They migrate to Britain annualy after wintering off the western coast of Africa. The last two years have seen the best productivity ever at this colony at Ferrybridge which is now well on the way to recovery, after many years of decline…

If you have visited Radipole since January you may have noticed that something has been missing. Not the wildlife of course, there have been all the usual suspects about like otter, kingfisher, water vole, the explosive cetti's warbler and the ever present marsh harrier and also some great new arrivals; yesterday in the sun you could hardly hear yourself think above the noise of sedge and reed warbler competing for space…

A quick impromptu bat foray last night proved to be one of the best bat watching nights I’ve had at Radipole! Chris suggested we go out for a wander around the reserve to see what was going on. No sooner had he finished his sentence my coat was on and Armed with a torch and a bat detector we headed out to concrete bridge. We were greeted by several Noctule bats which are the largest species found in the UK. They are obvious…

We’ve previously blogged about our rather feminine looking
male Marsh Harrier but a picture taken today by regular visitor Steve Carey
proves that his femininity is restricted only to his plumage. Marsh Harrier
activity has been difficulty to keep track off this spring due to the comings
and goings of several different females. We’ve definitely had three different
females and possibly even a fourth but looks like…

We made a quick trip over to Lodmoor after work yesterday to check for, among other things, the presence of a cattle egret that had ben reported earlier. Disappointingly, it wasn't on view but it was a fine afternoon for scanning the marsh for anything of interest. Whimbrel and common terns put in a welcome appearance but the highlight for me was Nick's discovery of this common lizard basking in the late warmth of the…

Regular visitors to the reserve cannot fail to have noticed that the Visitor Centre has been closed for some time now, and you may be starting to wonder when it will be opening again. Just to give you some background, the RSPB decided sometime ago that the centre needed a refurbishment, to make the building more welcoming and user friendly. So it is reverting back to what it always used to be, namely an information…

Yesterday marked a very sad day in the history of Radipole Lake with the funeral of Clive Dudderidge, one of our great characters.

Clive was a fixture within the Radipole Visitor Centre for as long as anyone can remember and became firm friends with all staff and volunteers. He unwittingly became the fountain of knowledge on all things Radipole for any early morning visitors with his remarkable ability to pluck dates and times…

Let me introduce myself. My name is Amber, and I am very fortunate to have been appointed as the new "Make Nature Count" Visitor Services Trainee for the South-West regions. Whilst I shall be based predominantly within the RSPB's Dorset reserves, there are possible plans afoot for me to participate with various neighbouring reserves. With this in mind, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about myself in early 

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Naomi - our most esteemed and knowledgeable plant recorder, (AKA Angelica in blog-land), was treated to amazing views of one of our most common mammals whilst out botanizing last week. The wood mouse is largely nocturnal and not normally so cocksure as to provide fellow mammalians with such prime photo opportunities as this.

 

The confident mouse was apt reward for Naomi for her sterling work painstakingly finding…

Late last year I wrote in this blog about a spider (Steotoda nobilis) which was living in our bathroom and which we came to call Lassie. Concerned about Lassie’s apparently self-destructive diet regime we gave her a square meal and observed her return to prime condition. As winter progressed through January her appearances became less frequent and soon her web became redundant. We assume that she crawled away and found…

North Hide on Radipole has provided some pretty amazing birds over the past few weeks and there is virtually always something of note to hold one's attention. The much publicised glossy ibises seem settled into Radipole life and North Pool is a favoured haunt allowing the capture of images such as Luke's beauty below.

The kingfisher pair seemed to get a bit carried away with some unseasonably warm days in February…

... Well first cuckoo flower anyway!

Returning from the North Hide this evening, the eagle-eyed Emblem-English, (or Chris to his many friends) made a welcome botanical discovery in the delicate shape of our very first cuckoo flower. I am sure that we all have certain things, particular to ourselves, which we most look forward to reacquainting ourselves with at this time of re-growth, regeneration, awakening and migration…