Trip reports

A Long Weekend in Dorset - by Mary Braddock

Sunday, 27 September 2009

Frank, our Outdoor Leader, had booked us in for an outing to Brownsea Island situated in Poole Harbour. This gave Dave and I a great opportunity for a long weekend in Dorset! So the last Friday of September found us at 4.45am on the road bound for Portland Bill with hopes of a good sea-watch! Although cool when we arrived, there was not even a breeze and the sun was already promising warmth. We made our way to The Bill where the air was full of bird calls. All around were swallows, house martins, meadow pipits, pied wagtails, willow warblers and chiff chaffs all getting together in groups of 40 - 50 birds. After a couple of circuits these groups set off over the sea going south - this was the autumn exodus, hundreds of birds making the migration to the continent. It gave us something to stop and think about. These birds, mainly juveniles, had been born somewhere in the UK during the summer. On reaching the coast they had suddenly reached this vast expanse of water not knowing what it was but instinct told them to fly out across it - that is some step of faith!

The sea-watch was quiet, some gannets, gulls and auks but no skuas. After breakfast at the café we wandered around Portland until about 3.30pm enjoying rock pipits, wheatears, whinchats, a common redstart and the sunshine. We left for Poole where we had booked B&B for the weekend.

The following morning we made a relaxed start for a day at Arne, crossing Poole Harbour via the Link Ferry. Again, not a cloud in the sky and no wind. Arne was busy with visitors but quiet on the bird front. We walked around the footpaths to Shipstal Point and back inland. There were plenty of Sika deer with the males obviously getting ready for the rut and we enjoyed the walk taking in the scenery which included the view over Brownsea Island. The afternoon found us taking the path around Coombe Heath where we had good views of a pair of dartford warblers. We chatted with one of the RSPB Wardens who told us that their dartfords had fared well during the winter, unlike those in Surrey where the cold had decimated numbers. A new screen looking over Middlebere Lake gave us fantastic views of black tailed godwits, avocets, shoveler and shelduck feeding in the autumn sun. As we walked back towards the car park six spoonbills flew over the Lake. These were obviously the ones reported to have been on Brownsea for a few days. They looked fantastic in the late afternoon sunshine and we kept our fingers crossed that they making their way back to Brownsea as we would be there with the Group the following day.

We made our way back to Poole and the Pub that we had found the night before in the Old Quay part of town. Food there was very good and reasonable, the wine was excellent and all in all it was worth the 7 mile round walking trip from our B&B.

Sunday morning found North West Surrey RSPB Local Group taking several of the free parking spaces on the famous Sandbanks peninsula. Dave and I were quite amazed to find this free parking as Sandbanks is famous for being the most sought after place in the country to live. The car park just down the road was £8.30 for the day as was the roadside parking on Sandbanks Road in Poole. All we could think of was that there is some ancient bye-law on the peninsula itself. However, on this lovely sunny Sunday morning at 8.30am there were only a couple of spaces left, good job everyone had arrived early! Most of us (25 in all) gathered around the Brownsea Island Ferry point along with about 60 Boy Scouts who were also going to the Island for the day.

Owned by the National Trust, Brownsea is 1.5 miles long and about 500 acres of mixed woodland, heath, wetland and shoreline. Part of the island is managed by Dorset Wildlife Trust as a Nature Reserve and this includes the wetland, lagoon areas and two lakes. There is a small area of heathland in the middle which is close to the Baden-Powell Outdoor Centre away from the Nature Reserve

Once we got off the Ferry (which holds 150 people) we made our way to the Nature Reserve. It was on the lagoon that we were hoping to see the spoonbills and we were not disappointed. However being spoonbills - they were asleep! There were large numbers of avocets (493) and over 600 black tailed godwits. Cormorants, teal, little egret, greenshank, redshank, spotted redshank, dunlin, oyster catcher, one curlew and a few knot made up most of the numbers of other birds on the lagoon. One Mediterranean Gull was spotted and three swallows were beating a hasty retreat to Africa. Continuing our walk around the reserve we also found some Red Squirrels. September is a good time to see them as they are hunting for seeds and nuts. We had begun to split off into smaller groups some staying with the Dorset Wildlife Trust Guide for a tour around the Reserve whilst others went off with cameras and bins determined to get that elusive photograph of a Red Squirrel and perhaps spot an autumn rarity. The one rarity of the day - a White Wagtail! Frank notified the BTO of its existence. The photograph of the Red Squirrel was harder than finding a rarity on this particular day! Small warblers on migration such as chiff chaff and willow warblers were seen and heard. Most of us joined up again at the café at that time of the afternoon when a cup of tea is most welcome. A great day Frank - thank you for organizing it.

A NT warden informed us that there were at least 700 people on the island that day - in some places it did feel busy, but we got on our 4.15pm ferry back to Poole with no problem. The harbour was packed with boats of all sizes going back and forth - it felt busier than the M25! We said goodbye to the rest of the group who were on their way back to Surrey and we took a leisurely drive back to our B&B and our last meal in the Pub.

A lovely weekend and oh... we got back home in 90 minutes on Monday...in cloud!

Mary Braddock