Memories: The Cutlery Bird

We had parked the car and were getting out. We were at RSPB Arne in Dorset. Now I know I am usually based in Devon but we were on holiday for my birthday. We had started walking. One of the main RSPB reserves, Arne held the last population of dartford warblers in the UK back in the 1960s. The path took us to a section where there was heathland one side and a few fields on the other. On the heathland, I was hoping to see a dartford warbler as Arne is quite famous for them. In the field, there was a very dishevelled looking wood-pigeon.

We carried on and found a good vantage point looking out over some tidal flats. We set up the scope and looked out. There were plenty of shelducks and groups of herring, common , lesser black backed and great black backed gulls. There weren’t any wading birds apart from a lone dunlin.

We carried on and the path took us to a sort of small beach. There was a cliff above it and a viewpoint not on the cliff but on a bank looking over a section of reeds. We could see brownsea island from there. Then, out of the reeds, 2 ducks swam. We got the scope on them quickly. They were some kind of merganser but they were not goosanders. We looked through the field guide and discovered they were red breasted mergansers. The first lifer of the trip. It was amazing to see them as they are not that common around here.

We walked down to the beach and sat on a beach. We were just by poole harbour and on the banks of brownsea, there was a group of roughly 60-70 oystercatchers. These wonderful black and orange birds were wading in the shallows.

We climbed the path that led up the cliff and it turned out to be a really great vantage point out over the harbour. There was a group of ducks swimming about. We quickly got the scope on them and they turned out to be mallards. Then, we turned our sights to something else out on the water that kept diving under. We followed it with the scope until it came up again. It was some kind of diver in winter plumage. We looked through the field guide again and discovered it was a great northern diver. Amazing. I felt great to have seen 2 lifers already! In America, the great northern diver is called a common loon!

We carried on and eventually came to a boardwalk to a woodland. We carried on across it and found a bird hide! We went inside and found a great vantage point across a wetland! Firstly, there was a redshank really close to the hide and a few black tailed godwits further out. The gems of the crown were sat on an island out in the middle. Spoonbills. There were about 5 or 6 and there bills were unmistakable. A very scarce bird in the UK, the spoonbill has declined dramatically due to the drainage of wetlands. I was amazed to see that a population had survived here. There was also something else out in the middle, hidden behind some foliage. We waited for it to come out into the open. That stark black and white plumage suggested one bird. An avocet. Amazing.

When we left the hide, we saw some other birders looking up at the trees. We asked them what they were looking at and they said that they had found a treecreeper. I lifted my binoculars and saw it. Very hard to see against the pine trunk. Wonderful. We stop at a playpark in a field so Bertie can have a run around but when we were making our way up, something very weird happened and I mean weird. We were climbing the hill and suddenly, out of nowhere, A cow came charging at us! We got through the gate quickly and he ran off into the middle of the field.

After this, we decided to make our way to the cafe to have some wind down time. After that, we popped into the visitor centre. There was a selection of bird skulls and feathers and there was a bird feeding station outside. I had a lovely long chat with an RSPB worker and in the end, I got a free book titled “Birds Of Britain”. I would recommend this book as it is quite informative and a very good field guide when you are out birding.

If you want to read more about RSPB Arne, here is a link: Arne

Here is an end gallery for the trip.