Dorset Holiday-Day 12: Fort Nelson Royal Armouries, Arundel WWT

Another scorching day and my family decided to take us to Arundel WWT, but only after we had been to Fort Nelson Royal Armouries. When we got there I found that there was a nature reserve across the road, though it was little more than a field so I went to have a look while my family spent the morning at the armouries.

The field had a lot of butterflies but the were all the same species, though they were in excess. These included things like Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large and Small White, But there were other species which were a bit more unusual, not least Marbled White and Small Skipper.

-Small Skipper

-Marbled White

Walking through the field I also found some none butterfly wildlife, though there was a lot less of this unless you counted the 6 Spot Burnet Moths which were once more very common.

-6 Spot Burnet Moth

While I was walking around there was a curious song coming from the grass and I eventually tracked it down to a very menacing cricket species, which Google informs me is a Roesel's Bush-Cricket, not that I regularly record cricket species, but it certainly struck me because of the striking yellow lines behind its head.

-Roesel's Bush-Cricket

On the bird front it was very quiet, with the exception of a couple of Magpies and on the way out I stumbled across a family of Willow Warblers. They were very flighty and I did not get exceptional views of them.

-Willow Warbler

I went to the museum cafe because my mum said that there we were going to have a coffee. While we were there my mum told me about all the butterflies that were on the wildflowers growing inside the museum. There was nothing that I hadn't seen, until during our coffee my dad spotted a Pill Millipede descending the wall of the museum, which is not a bug I can regularly see.

-Pill Millipede 

The journey to Arundel was none exciting except that there was a fire on the road which blocked everything up and restricted out speed at reaching the site. 

I have always wanted to go to Arundel, and when I arrived my first impressions were good, as on the first pond prior to entry there were Broad Bodied Chasers and Black Tailed Skimmers hunting it. The entry was good and we learnt that there were boat trips running, so we decided to go for one of those first before we had lunch and set off round the reserve.

The boat trip was very enjoyable and relaxing. I spotted some baby Tufted Ducks, as well as large families of Canada and Graylag Geese. On the mammal front we were delighted to see a Water Vole swim across the channel, though the delight would wear off as we walked round the reserve. On the Dragonfly front there were Black Tailed Skimmers, and there was another which I reckon was a hairy dragonfly but I did not get a good enough view. The only thing that would put me off that i.d. is that it is very late in their flight season, but apart from that, it ticked all the boxes. On the damselfly front there were Azure and Common Blue but also Red Eyed, but since we were on a boat I was unable to get any photos. For that reason my only photo of that species is from Norfolk 2 years ago.

We had lunch in the wildlife garden but did not really see anything.There was a school trip lunching next to us and that could be partly to blame. After lunch the trip headed off towards the lapwing hide, so we decided to  go to that hide later and instead go to the 'Sir Peter Scott centenary sand martin hide'. On the way, there were some Egyptian Geese on the path.

-Egyptian Geese

The hide was OK in terms of birdlife. There were Moorhens and Canada Geese feeding directly in front of the hide, as well as Mallards, Tufted Duck and Shelduck. There were also a pair of Common Terns on a raft in front of the hide, which were showing nesting behavior but no sign of chicks, despite what the sightings board said. They were quite close though, and they obviously were not too bothered by people who I imagine were often noisy which could have disturbed them from their nest.

-Common Tern

After we had finished in that hide we went back to the two hides we had meant to go to, Ramsar hide first, where there was nothing much except a female Mandarin. The second hide was the Lapwing hide, and it lived up to its name since the only bird in there besides Mallards was indeed a Lapwing.

After those two disappointments we headed to Scrape hide which was the best hide on the reserve, but that really did not say much. There was a good number of species, including Mallard, Shelduck, Tufted duck but also a few Gadwall sheltering from the heat under a tall tree. At the far end of the pond there was a Grey Heron hunting but it was some way away. There were also quite a few dragonflies around, but the only ones close enough to identify were Four Spot Chasers and Black Tailed Skimmer.

-Gadwall

-Grey Heron

We were watching the far dragonflies to see what they were, when a small mass began swimming across the lake. My initial thought was grass snake, and why not. But no, it turned out when I looked at it through my camera that it was another Water Vole, though to be honest I would rather that it was a grass snake.

-Water Vole

After we had finished at Scrape hide we moved on to Reedbed hide. Here there was very little, but there was a very cute family of four well grown Moorhen chicks. The adult bird then mounted a small platform in front of the hide, being very bold and then started looking in, even though we were only about 2 feet away.

-Moorhen

It was the best view of a moorhen I had ever had. After we had finished in Reedbed hide we moved on to the reedbed walk. About half way through the reedbed walk we sat down and were soon surrounded by a small gathering of Moorhens and Mallards, so my dad fished out the crumbs from lunch and started to feed them from our hands. The moorhen though decided that it would rather have my flesh than bread crumbs. 

After that we moved on and were just watching some more moorhens when I noticed that the reeds next to us were moving of their own accord. So I had a peek in and spotted another Water Vole there happily chomping away even though we were only about a meter away. Now the appeal of water voles at this site was beginning to diminish. On the boat, our pilot had told us that the reserve was in a big fence so that no water vole predators could get in with the exception of birds, but it also restricted the voles moving out. So effectively, it was like a big water vole zoo, but you don't really think of it until we start to see them as tame as this.

-Water Vole

We finished the reedbed walk and headed to the waterfalls enclosure. Here there was the only Blue Duck outside of New Zealand and that was quite exciting. After a few mins of watching it though you began to feel sorry for it, alone with only a farm duck for company. It was exciting to see because it is such a rare duck but for the above reason it seemed a bit bitter sweet.

-Blue Duck

We finished by walking back through the pet wildfowl zone and we got to see some large groups of rare wildfowl of the world, as you would expect from a WWT place. Once more though as we were walking over the white faced whistling duck boardwalk, a Water Vole appeared and started swimming across the pond, even though we were almost directly above it.

-Water Vole

I thought the reserve was a big disappointment really, I had expected a bit more. My dad summed it up quite well-Its a great place if you want to see Moorhens, but otherwise. We headed back to the caravan site, but the wildlife did not stop there, oh no.

That evening once more we set off to look for nightjars to see how many we would get. We had to wait a little longer than the night before and for a few minuets we were wondering if they would even turn up tonight when we were suddenly surrounded by churring and we saw one flying right towards us. We soon had 3 Nightjars flying all around us, and once more quite close. This time I had brought the tripod to try and get some photos of when the birds were landed. However, it did not really work as the camera still vibrated while on the tripod. Still I got more amazing views of these bizarre birds.

-Nightjar

So ends our last full day on holiday, alas that there 13 days have flown by so quick. Hopefully, on the way home we will go out on a high.

isle of wight day 8-return to the chine

Today was a very pleasant day, but it started badly! My mum spent the whole night throwing up, so we were unable to really do anything. As a result my dad and brother and I decided to go to the Amazon World Zoo just down the road, because mum didn't want to go to that anyway, while she stayed at the caravan and rested.

We walked to the zoo and when we got there looked around, although it was smaller than I remember, it was still a good attraction although some of it was being re-furbished. despite that, there was still a good variety of birds and animals, including a few sunbitterns on the terrapin pond, which was a real surprise, although still nice.

we also got views of the giant anteater, something we didn't see last time because it was too busy sleeping, and they also had a few new additions including a southern turmandua, which is one of my favourite animals.

-Southern crowned pigeon

-Sunbittern

-Bali starling

-Turaco sp.

-Southern turmandua

-Meerkat

-Giant anteater even though Amazon World is one of my favourite zoo's the real wildlife was waiting outside. When we got back to the caravan my mum was feeling better, so my dad suggested that they would go to a garden on the far side of the island, not far from whale chine as a matter of fact. And i decided that while they would be looking at the gardens, I would return to whale chine and try to grab a photo of a male keeled skimmer.

When I got there the weather had clouded over slightly, but it was still pleasantly warm. I decided to take some photos of the site, just to remind me when I got back about how spectacular the site was. And so here, as promised yesterday are the photos from whale chine, showing just how spectacular it is.

I -Various photos from whale chine, including photos of the "pools" (the bottom ones) Having gone through yesterdays photos overnight I was disappointed with some of my beetle photos, so decided that I was going to have to take more, and better, ones until I was satisfied. There was still no shortage of them, with about 4 every square meter.

-cliff tiger beetle

The next stop was the spiders web, to try and take some more photos without the rush of having to go and catch a bus. And i also remembered to get a photo of the web, or at least what I could see, with most of it infringed by grass. What I really wanted to feature was the weird zig-zag patterns on the web, that it seems could only be there for decorative purposes.

-Wasp Spiders web, with spider I continued my search for dragonflies, but only found one female. I went back to the beetles, as i could guarantee I would see some, and was not disappointed, looking down there was one near my foot. I got down and took a few photos from its level.

-Cliff tiger beetle Also of note was the number of large crickets and grasshoppers. The gorge is kind of like its own miniature world, which giant crickets weird spiders and beetles and obviously the rare dragonflies.

-Massive cricket I walked along the raised beach platform thing, until In reached the landslide area. I had gone no further that this yesterday, so maybe there would be more male dragonflies up ahead. I could see reedbeds in clumps across there so I decided to go for it. There was a larger pond up there and there were male dragonflies, but sadly they were very flighty, and so photo opportunities were limited. luckily though patience paid off and i got some photos of male keeled skimmers-though not of the quality i really wanted.

-Male keeled skimmers They really were quite spectacular in their own way, and well worth having a second shot at for. There were quite few, although the second photo down is only an immature male, and so is not really of the stunning blue type that i was looking for, but is nice to see anyway, and adds another dimension to the life story of these animals. Most of these photos were not really what I wanted, but as i said they were just too flighty, anyway its not all about the photos, as I got some really good views, at a high price, as at one stop I accidentally put my sandal over a black meadow ants nest, and they were not happy!

But there were more encounters to have yet. I spotted this male attempting, but failing to get the attention of a female who was rested. I watched them for a while, until the female foolishly decided to try and move perches and was ruthlessly grabbed by the male who carried her off down the ledge and presumably onto the beach.

-Male and female, only the male on the bottom pic There continued to be hundreds of beetles and they seemed to be screaming out for me to take a photo of them, so I took more photos of them, especially the one below as it seemed more keen to attack me rather than to run away from me, allowing me to get some photos of its vicious jaws and fearsome eyes.

-Cliff tiger beetles I returned to the first pool as i had no idea when my parents were returning and there was no signal down there, neither in the canyon nor on the raised platform. There were more dragonflies, albeit mainly females but i did find one male who i followed around, hence why there is a photo of him on two different perches. One thing you notice is that the dragonflies like to rest on the floor, maybe to absorb warmth from the floor.

-Keeled skimmer female (1st) and male (2nd-4th)

I decided that it would be better to try and stay as close to the entrance as possible, so I decide to return to the wasp spider and try to improve on yesterdays shots, but not before taking some more beetle photos!

-Cliff tiger beetle

-Wasp spider photos I was well pleased with the new spider photos. I then decided to go up to the top and explain the signal situation via text to my mum and dad. however on my way up i spotted another beetle climbing the cliff next to me, and I realised that it would soon be on eye level with me. I waited until it was and then was able to get some photos of a cliff tiger beetle, up a cliff and at eye level with me, so I didd'nt have to get down on the floor for the photo.

-Cliff tiger beetle when i got to the top I was plesantly surprised to see a party of four ravens on the cliff edge, my guess is that they were a family party. They were hessitant to fly but were obviously startled by my sudden appearence, and so after a few seconds left. but luckioly not before I got a photo.

-Raven

Back down on the platform I spotted another cliff tiger beetle at eye level with me, and so another oppertunity had presented itself for a photo, so i took it.

-Cliff tiger beetle after about 10mins my dad appeared coming down the path, so I took him to see the keeled skimmer males furthur up the beach, and luckily there were still a few out and about.

-Keeled skimmer male On our return to the car I showed my dad the wasp spider. It was while we were admiring it that a large grasshopper jumped into the web. the spider reacted with unpredicted speed, wrapping the grasshopper up with sheets of web, it being so quick even the camera could hardly cope, hence the poor image quality, but either it was pretty special and spectacular to see/watch!

-Wasp spider so ends the list of special encounters at whale chine, a pity to leave

nothing else happened today, but after wahle chine we went to look around a small town and there found a small pill millipede, my first, just to complete the day!

-Pill millipede