Wildlife in Dorset and Gloucestershire!
I've recently been down to Dorset in search of wildlife that frequent the numerous heaths that are in the area. One of these species is the beautiful Dartford Warbler ( Sylvia undata ) which needs these heaths to be able to breed and survive. In the 1960's, Dartford Warbler numbers dropped to only a few pairs in the whole of the UK, due to very cold winters, habitat and insect loss. However, the RSPB has been working very hard to get these beautiful birds back to safe numbers and 50 years on there are now 3,200 breeding pairs in the UK. The Dartford above was taken at RSPB Arne on one of the infrequent sunny spells I had on the day! After hearing the 'churring' contact call of one, I sat and waited for a while to see if it would come any closer. I was rewarded with lovely views of it feeding amongst the heather, gorse and small pine trees. Then, 3 more appeared! They were flying in and out of one patch of heather with food then coming back out again without food...