TRAVELLING NATURALIST TRIP REPORT

New Forest

Monday 7 - Thursday 10 July 2003

Based at: Forest Park Hotel, Rhinefield Road, Brockenhurst

Weather: Dry and hot, light winds.

In heatwave conditions we found birds very difficult to find in the Forest, with most species being seen on the coast. However, the weather certainly suited the insects and we broke all records in numbers of butterflies and dragonflies seen.

Monday July 7th

A dusk outing at Yew Tree Bottom got the week off to a good start with a singing Nightjar giving great views as it sat on a telegraph pole not far away from us.

Tuesday July 8th

Acre's Down was a beautiful place to visit on our first full day in the forest. A family of Grey Wagtails treated us to unusually close views as they fed on a puddle in a woodland path. A singing Tree Pipit was eventually found but never came very close. A female Redstart was more obliging, as were a number of Stonechats. The best bird seen was a single Woodlark, found just before it flew off after being disturbed by a horse-rider. Butterflies were abundant in the warm sunshine and were mainly Silver-studded Blues with one or two early Graylings. The lightest of showers forced us to shelter next to a very attractive pond covered with red and white water-lilies, where we found Common Blue Damselfly, Emperor Dragonfly and Broad-bodied Darter.

Nearby Wick Wood provided the site for a very pleasant picnic lunch. Little was seen in the way of wildlife but we were happy just to absorb the atmosphere amongst some of the largest Beech trees we had ever seen.

In the afternoon we explored the coastal scene at Pennington. Almost the fist birds we saw were a flock of Black-tailed Godwits including several in full summer plumage. Nearby were Redshank, Lapwing, Oystercatcher and Turnstone. In fact we kept on adding waders to the list, finding a total of 10 species in about 30 minutes, the highlight being a brief view of a pair of Little Ringed Plovers.

Our evening walk had to be brief as dinner lasted a memorable 2 hours! Crossing the road outside the hotel we searched the allotment area for Little Owls. As we approached one started calling from the trees around the allotments but refused to be located. We were just about to give up when a dark shape appeared behind the trees - not a Little Owl but the much rarer Barn Owl!

Wednesday July 9th

From Beaulieu Road Station we walked towards the marshy area of Bishop's Dyke. The pools at the edge of the path supported a good range of dragonflies in the hot weather. Keeled and Black-tailed Skimmers were most numerous with Common Darter, Blue-tailed Damselflies and Small Red Damselflies in smaller numbers. The best find was a mating pair of Black Darters, the first ever seen on one of these trips. Walking on into Denny Wood we added a few more woodland birds to the list including Nuthatch and Treecreeper. The temperature continued to rise and was soon hot enough to encourage Wood Crickets to start singing, a sound only heard on the hottest days of the year. Further on a number of huge orange Silver-washed Fritillaries were seen feeding on Bramble blossom.

Our afternoon trip was to Keyhaven where we added Water Rail and Little Tern to the list. This year the Common Terns chose to nest much closer to the harbour than usual, giving us the chance to see their frantic reaction to a patrolling Kestrel.

The evening meal was prepared and served in record time by the staff at the Forest Park Hotel enabling us to get to our evening appointment with Forest Ranger Paul Hibberd at Blackwater car park. We were taken into Poundhill Inclosure where we were shown a small group of female Red Deer with a few young stags, their antlers still thickly covered in velvet. Nearby was a larger group of Fallow Deer including a rare white female. A noisy male Redstart was eventually found in a tree and the ranger showed us the first orchid of the trip, a beautiful Heath Spotted Orchid. Reaching Queen's Meadow we climbed into the deer observation hide and were treated to the sight of 46 female Fallow Deer looking after 27 fawns. I suspect most of us present will regard this as being the highlight of the week, especially the spectacle of the fawns running around in groups and behaving generally like spring lambs! We arrived back at the bus as the last of the day's light was going, and just as first of the Nightjars started to sing. We had good views of 2 of these remarkable birds when a different sound was discernable through all the churring - the "tizzick" of a roding Woodcock. The bird responsible appeared briefly before vanishing into the dark of the forest. A movement in the scrub nearby prompted one of our group to spot a Roe Deer quietly feeding just a few metres away from us. To cap a terrific evening Paul produced a bat-detector and we were able to hear the chirruping of a hunting Pipistrelle as it swooped over our heads.

Thursday July 11th

The weather continued to get hotter through the week so it was just as well that we had decided to concentrate on butterflies for our final day with a visit to the Wiltshire butterfly reserve at Bentley Wood. The drive north through the forest into the borders of Wiltshire took us through some gorgeous countryside and added Hare to the mammal list, now standing at a record eight species. Reaching our destination, the party was still disembarking when the first White Admiral was seen, circling the crown of a small Oak next to the car park. The rest of the morning was spent finding a bewildering variety of butterflies including Gatekeepers, Ringlets, more White Admirals, countless Silver-washed Fritillaries and a even a pair of Brimstones. Notable plants here included Common Spotted Orchid, Agrimony, Fleabane and Coltsfoot.

We now had just an hour or 2 left to clean up on a few birds that had eluded us so far, particularly Dartford Warbler and Hobby. Hampton Ridge has for many years been the classic New Forest site for both species so finding ourselves in the north-west corner of the Forest we decided to spend our last afternoon here. A welcome breeze went some way to relieve the oppressive heat of the afternoon but did not encourage either of our targets to appear. We had good views of a "hovering" Buzzard though and found some new plants for the list including the rare Ivy-leaved Crowfoot, Watercress and a couple of Puffballs (Bovista nigrescens).

So we finished the week without seeing several of the Forest's expected birds, but having covered an incredibly wide variety of insects, plants and mammals in, most importantly, very congenial company. My thanks to you all for making this such an enjoyable week.

Bob Ford, 12/7/03

SPECIES LISTS