We took Ethel the vanAMP for a weekend away last June. We had booked a boat trip to see the few puffins that can be found on the coast nearby during the summer but unfortunately it was cancelled due to high winds. Instead we spent a lovely day rambling over RSPB Arne.
I’ve spied this many times before but always been too far away to get a pic. I thought it looked great mixed with the reflections of the sky.
Only the second one of these I’ve seen, the first being in Cheddar GorgeAMP.
The site at Arne has a real mix of habitats from coastal to woodland, heath and arable.
There was a large patch of these yellow flowers in amongst the trees soon after leaving the car park. I hadn’t confidently identified this flower before, but this one was clearly taller and more substantial looking than Common Bird’s-foot trefoil.
We came to an open field with these beautiful grasses on our left and Corn Marigold on our right. I’m guessing the grass is mostly Yorkshire Fog Holcus lanatus but I’ve barely forayed into grasses yet!
There was such a show of these flowers that I’m guessing they were deliberately sown.
As you can see in the pic above, the royal blue Bugloss was mixed in with the sunshine yellow Corn Marigold for quite a colour combo!
These were dotted about in the same field. I haven’t ID’d this wildflower before but am confident that it’s Redshank due to its red stems resembling the bird’s knees and its branching nature.
Wandering into a more heathy area, we came across some Heather.
This Tormentil was under some trees. I think it commonly has four petals but the height and leaf shape looks to me more like Tormentil than any other Potentilla.
Nearby we found this, which is new to me – clearly related to Salvias.
We found this heading out of the woodland towards the sea.
We had a picnic lunch on the beach looking at the fabulous view.
When we finally arrived at Shipstal Beach, we found sand and a sea of Sea Lavender, as you can see from the main photo at top of page. This grows near where I liveAMP so I’m familiar with it, but not in such profusion!
This lovely little Campion had formed a mat surrounding the red stems of Curled dock Rumex crispus.
As I said before, I’m new to grasses, but am reasonably confident as Lyme grass is famous for holding together dunes but is more silver-grey than Marram.
I recognised this plant from my visit to Reculver in North KentAMP a while ago.
It’s the long thin stems with tiny white flowers you can see in this picture. I’m not sure but it reminded me of a photo I saw recently by Leif Bersweden.
This is the little white flower you can see growing in amongst the Glasswort and Sea Lavender in the pic above. It has long thin spreading foliage and stems which you can see top left in the pic below.
Back to civilisation, we hit the cafe and found this beautiful lavender growing along the path. Given my day job at daisyshop.co.uk, lavender is a passion of mine, so photograph it wherever I go!
By the way were nearby at Studland Bay, Poole Harbour and Corfe Castle in the previous OctoberAMP