Brownsea Island

Thursday 24th March 2022

Today we were off to Brownsea Island. The weather could not have been better - it was as if we were in the Mediterranean. The island is owned by the National Trust but part of it is leased to the Dorset Wildlife Trust which was the area that we looked at Brownsea Island | Dorset Wildlife Trust. One of their rangers took us round for a few hours and gave us an amazing insight into what they are doing there. They have a brackish lagoon there which attracts lots of birds and it is very well set up for bird watching - I saw oyster catchers for the first time - and lots of other wading birds that I have only ever seen on wildlife programmes on TV! They are obviously famous for their red squirrel population and although I didn't see any we did find quite a lot of evidence of where they eat their food! Some other students did see them and showed us some grainy phots as evidence! A couple of the rangers live on the island with their families - what an amazing job - I don't think they ever leave though - its a job for life. It was another great example of conservation in action, I would love to go back and a look at the rest of the island.