A FULL DAY OUT VISITING MANY SITES INCLUDING MATELY WOODS AND HEATH - DENNY WOODS - BEAULIEU ROAD STATION AREA - PIG BUSH - HATCHET PONDS - BEAULIEU HEATH - LYMINGTON NR - NORMANDY MARSHES - PENNINGTON MARSHES AND PARTS OF KEYHAVEN MARSHES
WEATHER: bright sunshine all day but with a very cold easterly wind, temp 10C but felt like 0C at times.
It was a long old day, I got up at 5am in preparation for the day in the New Forest, I met up with Brian Fairborther at his house in Ashurst near Lyndhurst just after 8am and we spent the day together roaming his 'patch'. I left him around 6pm and got home just befoe 8pm. We had walked 14,000 steps and covered a lot of ground in search of New Forest birds, it was a recce trip for me and a great day out.
Matley Ancient Woodland was our first port of call, a Firecrest strong hold.
Brian led me straight to a Firecrest patch and within ten minutes we were watching one, then two. The first was a female but the second was a stonking male.
this is one of Brian's pictures, the bird was stunning as shown! It was too quick for digiscoping I'm afraid.
Further into the woods we found lots of common woodland species but the cold wind wasn't conducive to amassing a great list. We did see a Tawny Owl! A loud commotion was going on nearby and we tracked down the noise coming from Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Starlings where a tawny Owl sat. We flushed it of course!!
the heath around the woodlands are frequented by semi-wild horses, they keep the grass in check creating a unique habitat.
We could hear Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap singing along with the local resident species and we saw a single female Common Redstart but not much else. We made a brief visit to the heathland but the wind drove us back into the woods. We found Goldcrests in the car park.
Only brief stops were made around Beaulieu Station, most of the car parks are closed and those that are open are now 'pay-and-display' (the locals are not happy about that). We made a short stop at the Pig Bush car park and made a brief search for Darford Warblers. We found lots of Linnets but no warblers.
Brian forced me stop in Beaulieu village where we savoured some ecellent coffee and ate a superb hone-made fruit scone, yum-yum!
We then spent more time on the huge area of Beaulieu Heath, the site of a disused airfield. It is now covered in gorse and heather, ideal for dartys. We found a pair after a short walk and we saw lots of Linnets, Stonechats, a Whitethroat and a Song Thrush.
Common Whitethroat taken by Brian Fairborther
Before droppoing down into Lymington we made a short stop at Hatchet Ponds, the larger one had a few birds on it, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Coots, Mallards and a Cormorant. The Little Pond was birdless.
At Lymington we spent a couple hours taking a long, circular walk around Normandy Marshes, it was excellent there. The path is sheltered from the sea and wind by a man-made embankment, perfect for birders.
no need to lable this picture!
It was high tide and many birds were on the marshes we saw a good selction of waders, gulls and a few Little Terns. Both Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits were looking splendid in their summer garb, as were Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank, Turnstones and Oystercatchers. Avocets always look smashing.
Redshank on his post guarding his nest site below
After our walk Brian suggested another, similar walks around Pennington and Keyhaven Marshes, I was flagging by then, but off we went.
Dunlin, looking dapper in summer plumage. The bird in the foreground has a shrimp in his bill
Our second walk produced sightings of 5 Whimbrel, a couple of Yellow Wagtails and in one pool the remnants of the wintering duck population were represented by a few each of Shoveler, Teal and Wigeon. We added Little Egret and we searched for Spotted Redshank without finding one.
Bar-tailed Godwit
Excellent views of Common Whitethroat were had, they were very common in the scrub and Brian showed me a Gorse bush where he had taken a picture of Dartford Warbler, nice bush, but no Darty!
one of the five Whimbrels on the marsh - with a Black-tailed Godwit
After making it to the coastal wall for the second time we decided to call it a day, it was after 5pm and I had a 90 minute drive home. I left Brian's house and had a nice, trafiic free, drive home.