6th April - RSPB Arne, Dorset

This will be a much different blog as when looking to process the photographs, for some reason I deleted them off the SD card.  It happens and I will learn from it.  So here is what happened on the day.

We decided on RSPB Arne to try and get some better views of the returning Forster's Tern, we had seen it last October and managed to get photographs, but the light wasn't good.  We thought today would be better.  Well we saw the tern, but distantly and thankfully there was no chance of any photographs.

Arriving just after 7.00am we walked out to Shipstal Point, there were a few Sandwich Terns, but in the very strong wind very little else.  The tide was also very high.  A Common Sandpiper and a Whimbrel on the sand bank were two year ticks that were welcome.

We walked around to the hide, with Chiffchaff singing all over the heath.  A Meadow Pipit had us guessing for a while, but, it was a Meadow Pipit.

From the hide there was little to see, Redshank and Turnstone and even distant hirundines.  Walking back to Shipstall Point we missed an Osprey, which didn't improve the morning.  We had always intended to walk back to the cafe, but even this didn't work out as expected, there were no breakfast baps.

Walking back there were Sika Deer in the field and the buck was laying down only to be told to get up by the Doe as she stamped on his back.

Back at Shipstall, still nothing showing, a few more Sandwich Terns and the tide seemed to be rising again.  We stuck it out for about an hour and when the sun came out checked the cliffs for Sand Lizards, nothing.

After lunch we walked back again for the third time, now the mud was showing, but the only terns were the Sandwich.  Another check of the cliffs nothing.  By now we were losing the will to live, but decided to sit it out and wait to see if anything would happen.

A check of Bird Guides revealed that the Forster's Tern had been see at Hole's Bay and had flown out into the main harbour.  We waited and were rewarded with the distant views of the tern as it made it past us about forty minutes later.

We finally called it a day at 14:30 and made the walk back once again.  The Sika Deer was still in the field and these were the only photos I managed to save because they were in another folder as the image file numbers started all over again.

Fortunately this was the day to do something stupid.  On the way home there were Swallows around Wareham.