The Times - UK (2022-05-28)

the times Saturday May 28 2022

Outside 19

SUSIE KEARLEY, NIGEL PYE/ALAMY

Down in the inaccessible marshland

beyond the tip of the heath, a tall pole

held a sturdy platform. A large white

bird of prey sat there, and looking

through binoculars we realised with a

thrill it was an osprey. As though

intuiting it had been spotted, it slowly

rose and flapped away. A memorable

sight, this beautiful rare fish eagle, in a

most remarkable place.

Start Arne RSPB car park, Arne,

Wareham BH20 5BJ (OS ref SY 971876)

Walk OS Explorer OL15; downloadable

trail map at rspb.org.uk/arne. From

visitor centre follow “Shipstal Trails”.

Red Trail for 1½ miles to four-finger post

(982884). Left to Shipstal Point beach.

Returning, left up steps to viewpoint.

Right down steps to four-finger post. Left

(“Car Park”) back to car park. Through

gate at far end; follow “Coombe Heath

Trail” (white arrows) anticlockwise via

viewpoint (975868) back to car park.

Getting there Arne RSPB is signed off

B3075 at Stoborough, just south of

Wareham. Summer shuttle bus service,

Jun-Aug (2RN) from Wareham bus/

train station

Lunch Arne RSPB café (closes 4pm)

Accommodation The Bear, 14 South

Street, Wareham BH20 4LT (01929

288150, thebearwareham.co.uk)

More information rspb.org.uk/arne;

01929 553360

Twitter @somerville_c

Christopher Somerville

A

gorgeous afternoon of
sun and blue sky over
the Dorset coast, exactly
the sort of day to be
walking the sandy paths
of Arne Nature Reserve,
a rare and precious
example of conservation triumphant.
Almost all of Dorset’s lowland heaths,
the landscapes that Thomas Hardy
immortalised, have been lost to farming
and housing encroachment since his day.
If the RSPB hadn’t got hold of Arne’s
1,000-odd acres of lowland heath on the
western shore of Poole Harbour the
chances are it would all have been
ploughed up or built over. That would
have been the end of the Dartford
warblers, the nightjars, the marsh
harriers and raft spiders, lizards and slow
worms that inhabit this highly
specialised marsh and seashore — not to
mention the spoonbills and ospreys that
have recently set up home here.
We followed the Red Trail through
quiet woods of oak and beech between
hay meadows streaked yellow with
buttercups. Soon the pastoral scene had

A good walk Arne Nature

Reserve, Poole Harbour, Dorset

start

To

Wareham

Visitor

centre

Hide

Ponds

Shipstal

Point

Big

Wood

Hide

Viewpoint

Middlebere

Lake

Red Trail

Yellow

Trail

Coombe

Heath Trail

500 metres

DORSET

Southampton

Weymouth

Portsmouth

given way to gorsy heath of tall pine

trees. As we crossed a clearing a small

bird of prey, dark and intent, went

scurrying across the sky — a hobby,

uttering a burst of sharp yelps like a

woodpecker as it disappeared.

The hobby’s prey — red dragonflies

and electric blue darters — were zipping

about over a string of weedy ponds.

Stout southern marsh orchids grew in a

rank beside the path, now dull red with

fallen pine needles, that led to a little

beach at Shipstal Point where olive green

wavelets fell on the shore. From the

viewpoint hillock behind the beach we

got a fine view over Poole Harbour, the

wooded hump of Brownsea Island

prominent among a flotilla of little islets.

Back at the car park we set out on the

second half of the walk, the Coombe

Heath Trail across a windy, sombre-

coloured heather upland. Hidden in the

scrub were Dartford warblers, rare little

songsters with blood-red eyes.

Camouflaged in sandy hollows lay

ash-coloured nightjars, and I recalled a

midsummer evening at Arne when they

came out to perform their churring

mating calls and wing-clapping flight.

Soon the

pastoral scene

had given way

to gorsy heath

View of Poole Harbour from Arne

Nature Reserve. Top right: spoonbills.

How hard is it? Above: a Dartford warbler

4½ miles; easy;

woodland and

heathland paths