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…

Birds

The Lodmoor Marsh Harriers were joined by 3 fledglings around 20th June, and then a 4th youngster in the first week of July. Marsh Harriers also nest at Radipole and 2 fledglings were see from the North Hide on 6th July. A Bittern was at Lodmoor on 21st June.

There are chicks, ducklings and cygnets about on both reserves. Oystercatchers at Lodmoor have 2 healthy chicks, Mute Swans on both sites have good…

The Pyramidal Orchids are now in flower here at Radipole Lake. I counted twenty plants on my walk this morning and I am sure more will appear in the next week or two. They can easily be seen after the kingfisher gate, about 50 paces on the left hand side of the path on the way down to the North Hide.

Elsewhere on the reserve, the hedgerows are beginning to change to the yellow and pinks…

I went out on the reserve this afternoon to check on the progress of the first Brown Bee Orchid to make its appearance this year. Another flower was in bloom. The plant had clearly had many visitors since I first found it as the area had been trampled and some 'gardening' had taken place. I searched the hedgerow counting the Bee Orchids and found the second Brown Bee only six feet (1.8 metres) away from the first.…

This morning when I visited the Discovery Centre there had been reports of typical Bee Orchids around the reserve but none as yet of the Brown Bee Orchid. I am pleased to report that I did found our Brown Bee Orchid on my wildflower wander. The photos below were taken this afternoon. There are currently two flowers with more to come. I will be coming back next week to check on its flowers. So far I have only found one plant…

It has been warm and sunny on Radipole though it did cloud over for a while in the afternoon. The Purple Heron over at Lodmoor has now moved on but today three Little Egrets came to visit. They were joined by Grey Herons and Black tailed Godwits. The Marsh Harrier was seen from the North Hide.

The orchid season has definitely begun with an Southern March Orchid count of 16. I'm sure there will be more as the season…

June is traditionally the peak time of year for our bee orchids which appear on both Radipole and Lodmoor. Radipole has become well known for the 'Atrofuscus' or 'Brown Bee', a variety of bee orchid which I first discovered in 2008. (The very first atrofuscus which I discovered is my blog avatar). Below is my account of the discovery of the orchid which appears in Biodiversity News in 2011:

Bee Orchids…

Radipole volunteer, Allan Neilson, discovered this spider, Hyposinga heri on one of his surveys at Radipole. Though this species doesn't have a common name, the female spider in Allan's photos has become known as "Harriet". Below is Allan's account of his discovery:

On 28-May-2014 Sara Cookson, Allan Neilson and Jacquie Rayner were nearing the end of a butterfly survey when they saw a very small brightly…

Bee eaters were heard at Radipole last Sunday, 24th May. It was heard again over on Lodmoor on Tuesday 26th May. Last year they bred successfully on the Isle Wight. In 2002 they bred for the first time in the UK since 1955 in the Durham village of Bishop Middleham, near Sedgefield.

Over on Lodmoor a first summer purple heron was seen on Thursday 7th May. Since 12th May the heron has been consistently seen on most days…

Large areas of the Arne reserve are managed by grazing which helps keep the vegetation under control to create ideal habitats for wildlife. Much of the Estates Team’s work over the last few weeks has therefore involved making sure that our fences and gates were in good condition before the cattle went out onto their summer grazing land. Miles of fences at Arne, Stoborough and Grange have been checked and, where necessary…

It 's a sunny day here in Radipole and spring has definitely arrived.The reed beds are now alive with the chirping of the cetties and sedge warblers while pochard, gadwall and shelducks are paddling about in front of the Discovery Centre. Today we had two welcome visitors, a redshank on the island and two common terns. There have been sightings of a family of swans, five cygnets in all and a coot family with two chicks…

Monday 25th May from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Reptile Day

Expert handlers will be at the RSPB Radipole Lake, Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre DT4 7TZ providing hourly talks and offering the chance to handle some of the animals. Talks will be on the hour from 11:00 a.m. No need to book for this free event.

 Saturday 30th May Binocular and Telescope Day

The RSPB are holding an optics demonstration day between…

Another busy few weeks around the Dorset Reserves, some long term projects have been continuing such as the Battle for Butterflies work parties taking place at Garston wood, The predator fence is nearing completion on Arne Moors ready for the arrival of breeding waders and passerines and the tree planting as seen in our previous blog has now been completed all thanks to many hours of work from our many volunteers.

The Dorset reserves team has been involved in a number of projects over the last few weeks. One of our main focuses has been at our Lodmoor reserve in Weymouth where we having been battling through a tangle of scrub to make way for a new fence line.  We need this fence as we are planning on grazing part of the reserve to control the level of scrub in the area and hopefully create a better habitat for a diversity of species…

Half term is almost here and with it comes some great family fun to be had at the Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre at Radipole Lake from Sat 14 Feb – Sat 21 Feb Drop in any day between 10 am and 4 pm to join in with the free craft activities including seed bomb making and the return of the ever popular pebble painting.

The seed bombs are made by getting a ball of wet clay and rolling it in compost and wildflower…

Its 2015!! and winter has well and truly arrived. Across Radipole Lake amongst the floods we have had freezing winds, frosty nights and icy days. All this hasn’t deterred the male and female marsh harrier from cavorting about as if it were spring, tumbling through the air, sky dancing and people have been treated to fantastic views of the courting couple. Amongst the reeds, bearded tits are being seen in good numbers…

This weekend on Sat 13 Dec, is the last one of our fantastic binocular and telescope events at Radipole Lake and is your last chance to come along and try out a wide selection of optics, a great present for a loved one or a treat for yourself perhaps. Expert staff will be on hand to help you make the right choice and Radipole Lake is a great place to try optics out with its big picture window and plenty of wildlife…

Its that time of year again and Radipole Lake has a whole host of events lined up with something for everyone from shopping events to crafts to Santa coming to town!

Looking for that perfect present for the wildlife lover in your life or just want to treat yourself why not pop along to Radipole Lake on one of our Binocular and Telescope Demo Days. It’s a great chance to try out a wide range of optics from our panoramic…

The winter work program for wildlife continues at great pace with the creation of a massive (check out the picture!) scrape at the northern end of Radipole Lake for waders. Only completed a couple of weeks ago it has already attracted grey heron, common sandpiper, flocks of black-headed gulls and loafing ducks. The next step is to link the scrape to the public trails and install a viewing area.

Scrape near North hide…

Hello, I'm Stewart, one of the Wardens here in Dorset. The RSPB will be holding a week of scrub clearance at it's Lodmoor nature reserve.

The northern end, running parallel to 2 Mile Coppice, has become increasingly overgrown. With your help we are looking to clear some of this scrub and bramble to enable a new fence line to be put in and start grazing the area to increase its wildlife diversity.

What will we…

Radipole Lake has been hooching with birds lately, our fantastic bearded tit walk was fully booked and people got great views of an amazing 50 bearded tits erupting from the reed bed, its been a great year for them. We also saw chiffchaff (still here!), marsh harrier (magnificent!), reed bunting (always nice to see them) and kingfisher (dazzling colours).  We are ringing bearded tits on site to find out where they end…

This year we are very lucky to have received a generous grant from SITA to enhance the reserves wetlands around the North Pool. 

This Autumn the existing North Pool will be getting a face lift, removing built up vegetated soil and encroaching vegetation. A section of the fields to the south of the existing pool are also benefiting from the Grant with the creation of a completely new ‘scrape’ system. This, whilst also…

Little Stint, Little Egret, Bearded Tit, Black-tailed Godwit, Cetti's Warbler, Pintail (female), Marsh Harrier.

Well not quite but we have recently finished having the roof of the Discovery Centre re-thatched, using a large proportion of our very own reed from Radipole’s reed bed, which is fantastic. It had not been re-thatched since the late 1970’s so badly needed doing and was partly funded through a legacy. It looks superb and has some nice touches on the ridge peaks with a thatch swan on each, a bit of a makers mark. Huge thanks…

Radipole Lake has turned into a Mecca for Canada geese recently with an amazing 300 plus descending on us with a few fantastic feral hangers on in the shape of a barnacle goose and bar headed goose. Its always lovely to see these fellas. Water levels before all this rain were very low and the shallow water made it very attractive to them.

Autumn waders continue to build up with black-tailed godwit, green sandpiper…