Trip reports
New Forest walk at Ashley Walk - Sunday 22 February 2009
Sunday, 22 February 2009
After an ominously quiet first 45 minutes, the first special bird of the day finally gave classic telescope views, perched on top of the gorse - a male Dartford warbler. Close by were a pair of stonechats and in the valley a group of female fallow deer were resting quietly, with a cream one amongst them. Very shortly afterwards, in the same valley, a stunning adult male hen harrier was seen steadily quartering the heather clad hillside. All 16 in the group enjoyed sublime views of the silver-grey harrier, with ink-black wing tips.
During a welcome stop for coffee, a hawfinch was found, perched in wonderful light at the top of a mature oak. Sadly there was time for only a few to enjoy telescope views before the bird flew. This proved to be only hawfinch of the day.
During the walk through Pitts Wood, a raven cronked and flew over with a buzzard nearby, a group of song thrushes fed on the short turf in a clearing and some of the commoner woodland birds were seen. Lunch was taken on the hill beyond Pitts Wood, where the scattered logs provided convenient seating. Lunch was interrupted by a woodlark in songflight and by a very distant soaring goshawk.
Amberwood in the afternoon was quiet but did offer views of species we had until then heard but not seen - nuthatch, treecreeper, goldcrest and great spotted woodpecker. An unexpected highlight was a red kite that flew above the wood and over the track we were on, showing the full colours of the plumage and the deeply forked tail.
As we approached Pitts Wood on the return walk, a group of finches landing in the conifers were found to be crossbills. Excellent views of the brick red males and greenish females were enjoyed, with up to 5 in view at a time. The song thrushes were still feeding in the same area, this time joined by 2 redwings giving great views and allowing side-by-side comparison. A male siskin, though high in a conifer, was in beautiful plumage and singing well.
The group returned to the car park around 4pm having enjoyed the wonderful habitat and having seen over 40 species of birds including several New Forest specialities, all in very pleasant weather conditions.
Full list of species:
Mallard, red kite, hen harrier, sparrowhawk, goshawk, buzzard, kestrel, merlin, pheasant, snipe, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, wood pigeon, stock dove, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, skylark, woodlark, meadow pipit, dunnock, stonechat, robin, blackbird, redwing, song thrush, mistle thrush, Dartford warbler, goldcrest, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, long-tailed tit, nuthatch, treecreeper, starling, jay, magpie, jackdaw, raven, carrion crow, chaffinch, hawfinch, siskin, greenfinch, goldfinch, crossbill.
Reported by Tony Goddard