This was a short break away as 'The Boss' had had to work through Christmas. We wanted to do some bird spotting and a bit of walking. Poole made an ideal base to stay and the Isle of Purbeck provided some good places for birds. We were lucky with the weather as some big storms came through but they were at night. So Saturday and Sunday were dry and mostly sunny. On the first day we visited the Arne bird reserve. On the way to the main hide we came across these sika deer. There was a stag with them and his antlers were still pretty impressive.

At this hide at Arne we saw 3 spoonbills and if you look closely at the 3 big white blobs on the photograph then you may recognise them. There were plenty of other birds but these were the ones that we got excited about.

On the Sunday we went over to Studland on the Sandbanks ferry, memories of childhood. We stopped for lunch in Studland and were treated to a man setting fire to his coat. This was by accident but did make quite a stir in the pub. The landlord trying to start the fire in the fire place with diedel oil was also exciting. On studland we visited two hides and saw plenty of birds. It was all the usual winter suspects but nice different locations. We also saw more deer as we walked to the hides.