Today's trip required an early start to enable me to join the South Wiltshire local rspb group for a morning's birding in the New Forest. I knew the car park at Acres Down fills up quickly so needed to ensure I was there in good time for the starting time of 8 o'clock. Therefore by 6 am I was on the road and travelling the 1 hour 25 minute journey. It was dark when I left with ice on the windscreen, but it soon got light and became a beautiful sunny day for the last day of February.
Last year I was in the area at the beginning of March and visited Acres Down because I had found out it was a favoured site for the lesser spotted woodpecker, the smallest and rarest of the woodpecker species in the UK. However, I failed to see it on that occasion so was hoping that it would be present this year.
By 8 o'clock, the group had gathered 14 participants; the leader never knows how many people to expect as you just need to turn up! The first part of the visit was to walk a short distance down the forest track and stop for about half an hour opposite a particular dead tree which the lesser woodpecker likes to use to drumming. Some of the members said that they already tried and failed to see the lesser spotted woodpecker this year, whilst someone else said they saw it last week! I tried to remain optimistic!
A couple of birders were already at the viewing spot, and told us the good news that they had seen both male and female within the last twenty minutes!
Some members set up their 'scopes pointing at the bare tree which was bathed in sunlight at the top, After a while a pair of stock doves flew in and rested together on a branch then a smaller bird flew in and stopped on the side of the tree and began drumming - our lesser spotted woodpecker! It was a small bird, and quite hard to see in detail through binoculars but thankfully someone let me look through their 'scope. Shortly afterwards a second bird joined it and after a bit of flying about both woodpeckers flew over the top of us and for a few moments perched at the top of the tree where we were standing although it was difficult to crane our necks to see them. They flew off and later we heard drumming from a bit further along the track but could not spot either bird. We decided to walk on but then realised that one of the birds had returned to the original tree and was giving lovely views, sometimes drumming, sometimes preening. It remained in view for some time, before moving further up the tree and transferring to a smaller branch and drumming there, which made a higher pitched sound compared to the thicker part of the trunk!
Eventually the bird flew off leaving us delighted to have seen it so well.
We walked down the track again, noting some small birds such as great tit, blue tit and long tailed tit. We also spotted a treecreeper and saw a jay fly over head.
The second part of our walk was to go up to the top of the down, and look for woodlarks and hopefully goshawks. We stopped briefly at the top of the hill for a snack and relaxation before making our way to a popular viewing area. On the way I saw my first butterfly of the season, a red admiral on some gorse flowers. Woodlarks could be heard all around us and eventually we spotted several individuals at different times, flying overhead as they sang , their short tails and wing flapping reminding us of a bat in flight. Up on the down we saw mistle thrushes, stonechats and meadow pipits and after scanning the tree line for a while, a member of our group spotted two distant ravens which were then joined by a goshawk who saw them off and then was joined by another goshawk. To most of us they were just black dots in the sky though!
By now it was past midday and we made our way back to the carpark before dispersing. I'd added a 'lifer' to my list along with five further year ticks.
pony at the top of the down
first butterfly of the season
some of the group relaxing during the mid morning break
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