New Forest.....

Tuesday 22nd April 2008

To get to my local shops I have to walk through a park, which always looks so nice this time of year. There are lots of pink and white tulips, the trees are out in blossom and the shrubs are just bursting into life again. I find myself going shopping for things I don't need, just to see the flowers and of course the birds are singing in the trees.


apple blossom

Love is definitely in the air... as far as the birds are concerned.......They've been busy finding mates and building nests. I saw the Blackcap on the apple tree this morning, I hadn't seen him for a week or two..



On Sunday we went to the New Forest and parked in the Barrow Moor car park. We spent a couple of hours walking through the woods and saw most of the usual woodland birds. The best finds were two Firecrests on the Barrow Moor side and a pair of Tree Pipits in the pine area on the opposite side of the road.............

121. tree pipit
122. firecrest

Happy Birthday to my sister for today and to my friend Jean, tomorrow......

New Forest and Sowley Pond...

Saturday 16th February 2008

It was back to the New Forest on Saturday, for a walk in the Arboretum. Weather wise, it was blue skies and sunshine but freezing cold, which is probably why the Arboretum was very quiet.

On the bird front, Robins and Blackbirds were the main attraction, plus a couple of Coal tits and a small group of Redwings (ten or so) in the middle of the woods.


New Forest Pony

After our walk, we went up the road to the Crab Tree Earth/Holm Hill area, on the off chance there might be a Shrike. But no, nothing doing, it was very quiet there too.

The best find of the day was a Roe deer (I think it’s a Roe), who at one point walked within ten feet of me, knew I was there and carried on regardless.....


New Forest Deer


Sunday 17th February 2008

On Sunday afternoon we went to Sowley Pond to see the Long-tailed duck. Also on the pond were Pochard, Tufted ducks, Great Crested Grebes, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Mallards and a Kingfisher.

101. Long-tailed duck

Woodlarks, Hobbys and a Sedge Warbler

Saturday 19th May 2007

The weather was fine but a bit windy and we decided to head for Shatterford in the New Forest, arriving there at 9am.

Shatterford is definitely one of my favourite local places as it never lets you down on the bird front.



A walk across to Denny Wood was the plan but there was so much bird activity going on in and around the Shatterford car park that we stayed there for nearly an hour.

Swallows were flying all around us and we just couldn't walk away from their display. Goldfinches, greenfinches, stonechats, chaffinches, a wren, pied wagtails meadow pipits all singing or dancing away. I could have watched and listened to them all morning.

We finally managed to drag ourselves away and started the walk across to Denny Wood and within two minutes we came across a beautiful pair of Woodlarks one of our target birds for the day.



Woodlarks



Five minutes later and another target bird appeared, a Hobby! We watched as it followed the swallows over the heath and then Ian noticed another one, what a fantastic morning and another reminder of why I love Shatterford so much.

Denny Wood was alive with the woodland birds but very busy with campers. We noticed one of the caravaners had brought a bird feeder with them and had planted it in the ground next to their caravan and lots of birds were feeding there, what a lovely idea.

Then later on we called at Testwood Lakes but I hadn't realised the time and the hides shut at 4pm. All was not lost as we had a brief glimpse of a sedge warbler.

112. woodlark
113. hobby
114. sedge warbler

Cuckoo

Sunday 26th April 2007

We could only manage another brief trip out today and went to the wood opposite the New Forest Reptile Centre.

Didn't see anything out of the ordinary but did hear our first cuckoo of the year and at the same time a woodpecker was drumming, sacred sounds indeed! Also saw a speckled wood butterfly.


speckled wood butterfly

At the Reptile Centre they have The New Forest "Goshawk Nestcam" a joint venture by The RSPB, Forestry Commission and New Forest National Park Authority.

A camera has been installed over the nest of a breeding pair of Goshawks, over the next three months visitors to the New Forest Reptile Centre will be able to see live pictures from the nest on a large screen TV. The last I heard four eggs have been laid.

Marsh Tit

Sunday 8th April 2007 - Happy Easter and Happy Birthday RGM!

Another glorious sunny day so we decided to go back to Milkham Enclosure in the New Forest for another look at the Crossbills.

We had a good walk through the Enclosure but the birds were few and far between and we didn't see any Crossbills this time :-(

We did notice a Buzzard flying overhead quite alot and thought this must be it's local patch.



It appeared again and as I was watching it, it put it wings down by it's sides and nose dived towards the ground and out of sight.

We walked along the stand of trees to an open heath area to see if we could get a glimpse of it and sure enough, there it was!

It must have gone down for some prey and just as we noticed it, it flew into a tree and then a few minutes later it flew across to another tree.

I've only ever seen Buzzards in the sky before so it was a treat watching it go down and then seeing it on the ground before it flew to the trees. I just wish we had a longer lens on the camera!

After all that excitement we went down to the Highland Water Inclosure and saw our first Marsh tits of the year.

101. marsh tit

Peregrine Falcons

Saturday 7th April 2007

We were down in Lymington this afternoon and walked along the seawall. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary but the weather was so good it was just nice to be out and about.

Yesterday the bird list was at 99 and I was speculating as to which bird we would see next! A Peregrine would be a good one to take us to 100, I thought......

Well, you can imagine how excited I felt when we were driving home through the New Forest and there on top of a dead tree was a Peregrine! Yes! a Peregrine!



I went straight into panic mode trying to get the camera from the back seat, not wanting to miss anything, so trying to get a good look through the binoculars at the same time!!

We were only 10 feet or so away from it but of course it flew off a few minutes later and luckily for us it only flew 20 feet or so further into the gorse.

We sat watching it for a few minutes and then it flew across the road and landed again. We couldn't believe our eyes when we noticed another one. How cool was that! Two Peregrines a few feet apart!

We tried to get a bit closer to them but the one we had been watching decided to fly off into the distance. The other one stayed put.

I took lots of photos but I knew we were too far away for them to be any good so I decided I had to get out of the car and try to get nearer.

It was all very exciting, I managed to get 20 feet or so closer and took some more photos before it flew off. Unfortunately the light wasn't great and I was still not close enough so the photos are pretty poor.

Still I can't complain, not one but two Peregrines, the list now at 100 and a beautiful sunset too! Happy birding everyone!


New Forest sunset

100. peregrine

The Magic of the New Forest

Saturday 24th March 2007


A White Deer in the New Forest

Each week I hear of someone or other seeing Crossbills in the New Forest but everytime we are there we never see any, so today we decided it was time to have a proper look for them.

Milkham Enclosure near Bolderwood was our first choice of places to look and when we arrived at around 8.30am the wood was alive with birds. We didn't see any Crossbills at first and then just as we were heading back to the car I saw a couple of birds fly across to a tree in front of us. I looked through the binoculars and I could see a male Crossbill and then a female Crossbill, fantastic! We both had good views for well over 10 minutes. I thought seeing the Crossbills was probably as good as it was going to get today, but how wrong can you be.........

Walking in Bolderwood five minutes later we saw seven male Fallow Deer. Nothing strange about seeing Deer in the New Forest, except that one of them was a beautiful White Buck.

American Indians believed that catching a glimpse of a White Deer was the first step toward prosperity and good luck. I don’t know about that, but all I can say is that having seen lots of Deer over the years, that White Buck was truely a joy to see.



To finish off what was already a very special morning we decided to pop to Blashford Lakes.

We don’t always check out all the bird hides at Blashford as sometimes we just go for a walk in the woods but as we were feeling lucky we decided to have a look in each hide. Just as well we did as from each hide there was a new bird for the year list!


siskins

Gadwall from hide one, Siskins from hide two and a male Garganey from the third hide. We wouldn't have spotted the Garganey ourselves, but a very nice man pointed it out to us and let us have a look through his scope. What a great morning, four new birds and a very special white deer......it really couldn't get much better than this!


88. crossbill
89. gadwall
90. siskin
91. garganey

Cadmans Pool

Sunday 25th February 2007



We decided to have a look for some Fieldfares today, a bird I have never knowingly seen before.

Last year we saw lots of mistle thrushes at Janesmoor Pond on Stoney Cross in the New Forest, so we thought we would try there for the fieldfares. It wasn’t to be I’m afraid, there wasn’t even one duck on the pond! So we headed on to Cadmans Pool.

As we pulled into the car park a lady was leaving some food for the birds and replenishing the feeders on the tree. How nice of the locals to look after the wee birds. She then threw some food on the pond for the ducks and canada geese.

We had a walk along the track on the car park side but the only thing we saw was a kestrel looking for it’s next meal. So off we went across the road and it wasn’t long before I spied a couple of thrush looking birds in the distance. As I put the binoculars up, another four birds landed beside the first two, and yes, I could see they were all fieldfares. We tried as best we could to get closer to them for a better look, but as we moved a couple of feet nearer, they moved further away and eventually flew off!

84. fieldfare

Oh, and Good Luck to my sister for Wednesday evening, I'm sure it will be a great success!

New Forest

Saturday 10th February 2007



Not much to report today I'm afraid. Weather wasn't great but we managed a couple of hours at Holm Hill / Crab Tree Earth looking for that pesky Shrike. I wish I could say that we had finally seen it, but no such luck. We did see a few goldcrests and some stonechats. Rain stopped play and we headed for home.

On the way home I asked my husband to stop in the carpark at Boltons Bench in Lyndhurst. He wondered what on earth I wanted to stop there for. I asked him to park the car at the far end next to some silver birch trees as I had a feeling we might see something.

Then the rain stopped and lots of little birds appeared. Two song thrushes, quite a few chaffinches, lots of greenfinches, robins, blue tits, great tits, dunnock and my husband spotted a treecreeper! We sat in the car and watched the treecreeper flit from tree to tree for at least 10 minutes - perfect!

New Forest and Pennington

Saturday 27th January 2007


nuthatch

Weather wise it wasn’t looking too bad.   Dry and not as cold as earlier in the week, so off we headed to the coast.

Not sure how it happened but we ended up in the Arboretum at Blackwater. Butterflies were everywhere, a red admiral even landed on me.  It felt more like a spring day than a winters one.

We saw some goldcrests and a wren and later on  a few hawfinches arrived. Then we went to the other side of the woods and saw a treecreeper,nuthatch and a great spotted woodpecker, various tits and finches, robins, blackbirds and I noticed a buzzard overhead.

62. treecreeper

After our picnic lunch we headed down to Pennington to see if we could find some pintails.

We parked the car at Pennington Marshes and on the walk down to the coast we met a lady birder we have seen down there many times before.   She said she  was on the look out for some Ruffs. She thought  we would probably see a Kingfisher down on the lagoons now that most of the people had gone home. She also said we would see some pintails.

She wasn’t wrong, within five minutes we had seen some pintails and two kingfishers! We also saw the Slavonian Grebe she said was  close to the shore.

Two female Red Breasted Mergansers were on the lagoon and a Kingfisher came along and seemed to bump into one of them. Could the Kingfisher have been taking a fish from the Red Breasted Merganser?? I’m not quite sure what happened there.

There were more surprises to come though.... five spotted redshanks and one greenshank, fairly rare this time of the year I would think.

Then on the way home I noticed some daffodils in Lymington, the first ones I have seen this year.


63. pintail
64. kingfisher
65. slavonian grebe
66. greenshank
67. spotted redshank
68. red-legged partridge (sowley)

Cranes Moor

Tuesday 23rd January 2007



I was in the middle of a pile of ironing when my husband unexpectedly finished work early and suggested we go for a walk in the New Forest . Oh dear! decisions decisions......what should I do? stay in and finish the ironing.........I don't think so!!

It was a bright sunny day, but freezing cold and I mean freezing cold so I put on four t.shirts, a cardi, a fleece jacket and a coat over.   Plus tights,  socks and jeans, scarf, gloves and woolly hat! One day I will invest in some proper thermals!

We went to Cranes Moor and before we had left the carpark we had already seen, robins, bullfinches, a mistle thrush, magpies, green finches, crows and wood pigeons. It was the bullfinches that made my day though. Years ago we   used to live  on the Isle of Wight,   where  a pair of bullfinches would visit   the  damson tree in our back garden. I didn't know anything much about birds then, so I   had to identify them from an old bird book.   Since we moved to the mainland I hadn't seen a bullfinch in years but this month I have already seen 4 of them. It makes me realise how I have had my eyes closed for years!

We crossed the road from the carpark and walked across the moor but it was very quiet with one lone robin braving the freezing cold wind to sing us a song.

60. mistle thrush
61. jackdaw



Afterwards we called at Blashford Lakes and had a look in all three bird hides. I especially like the woodland hide and we stayed there for quite a while watching the little birds. Great tits, blue tits, long tailed tits, green finches, chaffinches, goldfinches, and a nuthatch - just magic!

Cranes Moor

Tuesday 16th January 2007



We went for a 30 minute walk in Cranes Moor today.   It was after 4pm so not much daylight left. A kestrel was perched on the telegraph wire and  a woodpecker  landed in a pine tree close to us. I hadn't associated woodpeckers with pine trees before. It was a Great Spotted and looked lovely with the sun going down behind it. Then we saw a large  white bird flying towards us.  At first  I thought  it was a Barn Owl,  but as it got nearer I could see it was a Little Egret. It did look lovely against the darkening sky.

46. great spotted woodpecker
47. little egret

Blackwater Arboretum

Sunday 14th January 2007


Hawfinch

We stopped at Holm Hill in the New Forest and had a look for the Great Grey Shrike seen in the area the day before. Didn't get very far as the ground was waterlogged and we didn't have any wellies with us. We did see a Red Admiral butterfly and a bumblebee.

Went down the road to Blackwater Arboretum and saw another couple of Red Admirals also 3 goldcrests a wren and a coal tit plus lots of robins. Blackwater Arboretum is one of the best places in the UK to see Hawfinches, we saw 14 of them while we were there.

36. goldcrest
37. wren
38. coal tit
39. hawfinch

New Year Birding - 2007

New Forest and Blashford Lakes


sturt pond, milford-on-sea

It's  2007 and I've  decided to keep a blog this year to record my birding trips. I live in Hampshire UK and the Hampshire Coast, the New Forest and Blashford Lakes are my main birding areas.

It all began  last May.   A very good friend of mine died suddenly, and I was in shock and depressed. After her funeral my husband and I  went down to Milford on Sea.    I always feel better by the sea.    We  walked along the beach and then  sat down beside  the pond.    I was watching the swans when my attention was drawn to a gull-like bird, plunge-diving into the pond. I had never seen anything like it before and I was totally captivated. I had no idea what the bird was, so when I got home I looked through an old bird book and found  it was a Common Tern.   A  couple of days later we went back to the pond  and saw it again.   And that was it....... the start of my birding days.

January 1st 2007

I'm not what you'd call a morning person, but after a very late night I didn't have any problem getting up before 6am, so not a bad start to my New Year.

I headed down to the kitchen and put the kettle on as I was gasping for a cuppa. I remember seeing some birds flying past  the kitchen window.   But I was still a wee bit tired after the late night, so I  didn't pay much attention to them.

An hour or so later my husband and I were heading to the New Forest to look for the Great Grey Shrike that had been seen near Burley.

We searched the area quite extensively but no sign of the shrike. I had started taking a note of other birds seen since we left the house.

1. magpie
2. robin
3. starling
4. blackbird


I'm sure you can see by the list above I am not that good at identifying birds!

We eventually  gave up on the shrike and headed to one of my favourite places - Blashford Lakes near Ringwood. Apart from the lakes there is a beautiful little wood full of finches, tits, nuthatch, woodpeckers and treecreeper.

5. great tit
6. blue tit
7. nuthatch
8. chaffinch
9. tufted duck
10. coot
11. mallard
12. great crested grebe
13. cormorant

Then it was down the road to Ibsley Bridge to look for some Bewicks Swans.  I heard there were  a couple of them in the area,  and as I had never seen them before I was hoping to get a result.....and I did. I also noticed a buzzard  some stonechats, canada geese, mute swans pied wagtail, and a black headed gull.

14. bewicks swan
15. buzzard
16. stonechat
17. canada goose
18. mute swans
19. pied wagtail
20. black headed gull
21. carrion crow
22. wood pigeon
23. house sparrow