ACRES DOWN – TRANSFER TO SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL STATION
WEATHER: raining to start with blustery winds, some broken sunshine later in the morning
It was our final morning and today I will be taking Group 1 back to Southampton Station and collecting group 2.
It’s a good job that we didn’t arrange an early morning bird-outing because it was lashing it down at 6am. Instead, we ate breakfast at 7:30am, loaded up the bus and set off for Acres Down for our last birding session, it was a good decision because we saw quite a lot of birds and some new ones for the list.
Instead of walking downhill into the forest we walked uphill towards the heathland at Acres Down. We stopped to scan the valley from the top of a hill hoping to see any kind of raptor. The weather didn’t help, it was dull and overcast and rain was in the air.
We did, however, see quite a few species in the bushes and trees nearby. Marsh Tit was found by Maria, then a Willow Warbler sat out for us whilst a Coal Tit was in and out of sight. A pair of Bullfinches flew by and we saw Song Thrush and flyover Siskins.
We then walked up to the heathland and watched Tree Pipits performing their song-flight and Doreen found us our first Woodlark of the trip. It was the Common Cuckoo that provided the best entertainment, we heard a male calling and then it flew right over us. A second male called and a female answered, for the next fifteen minutes we watched them chasing one another around the heath, I had one of them in the scope perched at one stage.
a distant record shot of the Woodlark
At 11:30 am we had to leave Acres Down and as we walked down to the car park we found a pair of Siskins feeding on the grass, what beauties they were. As we pulled away from the car park a Hawfinch flew up from the roadside and was lost to view, only Doreen and I saw it as we were in the front seats.
a pair oif Siskin
We at a brunch in a café in the middle of Lyndhurst before driving to Southampton Central. I dropped Group 1 off and collected Group 2 for a repeat min-break, hopefully with better weather.