New Forest weekend

We made a very vague plan to 'go camping' in the New Forest this weekend, knowing full well it was going to be very, very busy!

We didn't manage to set off early either so it was after lunchtime that we arrived at Beaulieu Road train station. We'd visited here last year and seen very little but given Chaz's crossbill tip I thought we'd give it another go. No crossbills in the pines, but lots of chaffinches, greenfinch and a mistle thrush instead. We then took a walk over the heath on the otherside of the road, with linnets and stonechats. I really wanted to see a Dartford Warbler, but once again they eluded me totally. Two buzzards overhead, but not a lot else of note either on the heath or in the woods, other than a couple of treecreepers. Finally, on the walk back along the road we heard a bush that was singing. Eventually, it dawned on me that the bird must be on the other side of the bush, and as I inched round I spotted a bird definitely a lark, and probably not a skylark (it was in a bush, and when it took off it didn't sing for as long or fly as high as a skylark tends to), so I'm thinking it might have been a woodlark. I will google a woodlark's song and see if it sounds similar. Overall, I think we must be doing something wrong because Beaulieu Road is heavily tipped as a good site on the internet and in my book, but we've seen relatively little on both our visits so far. Perhaps its a seasonal thing.

Continuing the theme of following Chaz's tips, we then headed south to Pennington Marsh. We parked at Lower Pennington, and as we walked along the path towards the seawall we spotted a Common Whitethroat. On the sea wall itself we walked towards Keyhaven and saw loads of sand martins, Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwits, Common Tern and a possible Ringed Plover running along the far edge of the pool, along with oodles of Oystercatchers, Coots and Black-headed gulls. We stopped for dinner in the Gun at Keyhaven and then walked back the way we'd come. There were a lot more birds on the pools when we walked back than there had been on the way down. Amongst the Oystercatchers and Godwits were countless little waders. I thought they might be Dunlin, and had it confirmed for me by a kind birder who was watching them through a scope. I am fairly useless when it comes to iding waders, but I've never definitely seen a dunlin before so was chuffed with these. Further along, there were lapwings, and oystercatchers on the rock pools to the right of the path along with a good four or five definite ringed plovers, another lifer, along with what I'm fairly sure was a common sandpiper. Further along, we saw more whitethroats, including one that I think might have been a lesser (no pic, so its not a definite and thus not a lifer!) and another sandpiper-ish bird which didn't look much like the common we'd seen earlier. The light was fading by now and so I didn't get any concrete observations with which to id it by, but I'd be interested to know what other 'leggy' waders are on the marsh at present!! The last bird we saw was a very obligingly perched female Reed Bunting, a lovely bird.

We then got back in the car, thinking we were heading home since it was now approaching 9pm and we hadn't sorted anything else yet. We had a good look at a couple of forestry commission campsites which were very clearly labelled 'full', before taking a wrong turn in Lyndhurst and heading out on the A35. Attempting to rectify it, we took the Emery Down road towards Stoney Cross, when it suddenly dawned on me we'd be passing the road to Acres Down, where we'd visited last year, and we remembered there was a campsite at the foot of the hill; so on a whim, we tried it, and they had room, so we got to camp after all. After the tent was up, the football had finished, and I'd run out of beer, it was very nearly dark so we took a short stroll up the hill to listen for nightjars. We were rewarded, too, with churring from at least three seperate locations of various distances from us. Whether it was three birds or one mobile one, I couldn't say. We also saw bats!

Later that night, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep due to the biker that was snoring three tents over; I wouldn't like to know how his partner put up with it. I dozed for a bit, and then woke again to find the snoring had been joined by the very distintive churring of a nightjar. I would like to think that the nightjar was trying to impress the snorer. I promise I am not making this up!!

That morning, we walked back up the hill to the raptor watch point. Two distant buzzards, was all. After a while we wandered down into the woods to try for redstarts, but my run of bad luck with redstarts continued. That said, I was pleased with spotted flycatcher and marsh tits. I also got a glimpse of a big brown, bird of prey type thing flying away from us through the trees. Buzzard, I don't doubt!

Later on, we returned to Beaulieu Heath (different location, on the road between Beaulieu and Lymington) to try for Dartford Warbler. We got lots of linnets and stonechats, and a meadow pipit but I am starting to believe that Dartford Warblers simply don't exist. After that, we stopped for an ice cream and to see the deer at Bolderwood (no birds, too many people) and then set off home to be back in time for the World Cup Final.

All in all, a good weekend.