Australians going "walkabout" in the New Forest

Well Jackie and I have been busy of late so here is a catch-up on what has been going on over the last ten days or so.  On the 30th May I met Ken Cross and a group of Australians exploring the New Forest. Starting at Stoney Cross and went on to Fritham and Eyeworth.  Our first birds of the day were a nice little group of Stock Dove accompanied by Wood Pigeons, Rooks and distant Lapwing and just after as we passed the end of the old war time runway I picked up a Wheatear.  Around the Eyeworth Pond we had the usual ducks Mallard, Gadwall and the all colourful Mandarin, and several tit species including Marsh Tit.  Walking the track north we added Common Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher both always good to see and of course Goldcrest and a singing Firecrest which gave good song comparison.

  

Our next location was Bolderwood and, thanks to Olly Framton who gave us some super info from a day earlier, we only walked a few paces before we heard Wood Warbler.  Though the group had heard and seen this species earlier in their trip in Wales they hadn't expected to be treated to the performance we were about to have.  This super male was trilling by the path and when we stopped to view him he flew closer and then over our heads to another perch and sang again and he repeated this several times totally oblivious to us watching it.  It came so close that members of the group were getting shots on their mobile phones no long lenses required with this bird. 

Wood Warbler - New Forest

Our next location was Acres Down here we were to look for Raptors, though we had some success we apparently missed Honey Buzzard by an hour but we had lots of Common Buzzard, a distant Peregrine and Goshawk, Red Kite, Raven.  Plus a brief view of Hawfinch flying by and some of the best views of Wood Lark that I've had in a very long time which was really good for the group to get to grips with.  We also had a mammal tick for them here, a very smart Roe buck paraded itself out on the heath giving excellent photography views. 

We lunched at Lyndhurst before going on to bird Pig Bush and Beaulieu Road here we added Little Egret which was a sub-species tick for the group, Common Redstarts all out catching insect to feed their young gave excellent views.  We also had a bit of luck when a Cuckoo which had so far only been heard flew in and sat on a dead tree stump giving tremendous views.  They were able to listen to the display calls of Curlew over the bogs and later we had good scope views of a bird feeding out on the heath.

Archive shot of a Curlew © Nick Hull 

We were still absent of Honey Buzzard and Dartford Warbler so I thought as we needed to be back across to the North West side of the for our pub dinner we would head off to the Blackgutter area and see if we could find a few extra birds for our day list.  I took them to a favoured view point on the way and it turned up trumps with a distant Goshawk and a much closer Hobby which had a go at a nearby Sparrowhawk.  Arriving at Black Gutter we added Skylark, Stonechat, Meadow Pipit to go with the many Tree Pipits we had seen earlier in the day. Here we added another mammal to their growing list this time Fallow Deer a herd of around thirty individual feeding along the far side of the gutter.  The interesting thing was there were two Black melanistic individuals in the herd which contrasted greatly with the usual pale brown white spotted form.

After our excellent pub dinner we headed off to Holt Heath and Whitesheet Plantation our last venue for the day.  Here we had two target species Nightjar and Woodcock and we hadn't walked too far before a Nightjar gave it's characteristic churring song.  After a bit of searching we managed to locate the bird sat on the branch of a Silver Birch tree and watched it for several minutes flighting out giving its 'kerrwick' flight calls and wing clapping.  Whilst watching the nightjar both Jackie and I heard the 'tasip tasip' of a Woodcock and looking up a roding bird flew over us along the edge of the ride.  In fact whilst we were there it went over a further four occasions giving very good views.

Nightjar Holt Heath © Nick Hull

I'd just like to thank Ken and his group for a very enjoyable day showing them our local birds and wildlife I enjoyed all the Aussie banter it made for a great day.