9th February - Stoney Cross and Acres Down, The New Forest, Hampshire.

This winter hasn't been too bad got Great Grey Shrike sightings in the New Forest, before Christmas I caught up with one at Shatterford and then in the New Year there have been as many as reports from three locations.  Last year there were none throughout the winter.  Probable cause is the harsh winter conditions on the continent, driving some birds west.  With this in mind and a latest report of Saturday, I decided to try my luck with a bird in the Stoney Cross area.  This was somewhere I hadn't been before and the closest parking was at Andrew's Mare car park, I am sure there must be a reason for the name but I couldn't find anything.

From the car park I set off on a track that ran parallel with the A31 and passed to large ponds, whether they were always like this or the recent unprecedented rain had filled them I don't know, but they looked impressive.

The reports suggested viewing from Lucas Castle, there was no building just a hill, and again I could find any reason as to why this was called Lucas Castle.  What I did find out was that the area is renowned for ancient oaks and there were quite few running alongside Highland Water that flowed in the valley on the west side of the castle.  Several Mistle Thrush could be heard singing in the area, here one distantly at the top of one of the oaks.

I searched the area for well over an hour without any sign of the shrike.  It wasn't possible to go up the hill on the west side because the Highland Water was so high and impossible to cross.  There were plenty of dead birches in the area for it to perch on, but nothing.  During the search I had a Redpoll fly over and a menacing Goshawk heading west.

It was clear that the Great Grey Shrike was not in the area, I have had plenty of experience chasing these elusive birds, after a couple of hours I decided it was time to try my luck elsewhere.  With plenty of birds singing and there being some sunshine about there might be a chance to find the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.  So with this in mind I decided to take the short drive to Acres Down.

From the car park I headed down the track towards the "usual tree", above me Long-tailed Tits were in the branches.

At the"Usual Tree" there wasn't any sight or sound of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.  The dead branches at the top though were occupied by Stock Dove.

So I tried for another favourite, the Tawny Owl.  As I approached I could see it at the hole, but as I raised the camera it saw mee too and slowly suck down.  No tea for me in his treetop house!

I decided against walking on and turned back and headed for the heath and Acres Down.  Passing through the holly trees there was a singing Firecrest and in the trees around the car park several Song Thrushes in song.

I never tire of the view once you have made it up the hill from the car park.

Initially it was quiet as I approached the view point, but soon I heard the rich flutey notes of the Woodlark's song.  It was though difficult to find the birds, they do sing on the wing or at the top of bushes, but I was only managing glimpses as the birds flew over singing.  I estimated that there must be at least six birds singing in the area.

The Woodlark s restricted to the southern counties of England and although its name suggests a woodland dweller it prefers the more open habitats of the forest edges and clearings and the sparsely wooded heathland that you find here on Acres Down.

I walked to the view point to have my lunch and the Woodlarks continued to sing around me.  As I walked away I stopped immediately as there was one on the track in front of me.  It was running iin and out of the heather on either side of the path.

The Woodlark is a streaky brown bird, with a beige-white eye-stripe, which meets across the nape (the back) of its neck. It has a well-developed crest on its crown, which is not always obvious. In flight the unusually short tail and broad, rounded wings are noticeable and its bobbing flight with closed wing-glides is characteristic.

Rather than follow the Woodlark down the track I moved to the side and followed it as it walked along the track.

While most writers have been inspired by the Skylark, the lesser known song of the Woodlark was and still is admired.  It was observed that the voice of the Woodlark was "richer and its notes are more varied than the Skylark" back in the late 1800s and Gilbert White gave his own tribute in the Natural History of Selbourne when Woodlark were common in that area.

High in the air and poised upon its wings

Unseen, the soft enamour'd wood lark sings

The Woodlark seemed to be quite happy with me to walk along with it and I was also blessed with some sunshine.

Head coming up from below the heather.

It was really nice to get some different shots of this little bird, it may be classed as an "LBJ" but has a beauty of it's own.

Then it was gone, away pst me and out over the heath.

Woodlark was definitely one of my target birds as I walked up the hill so I was pleased to have had such a good encounter.  Time was moving on, but I wanted to try one more time for the Tawny Owl.  Unfortunately it wasn't showing in it's treetop house.

Walking back to the car a Dunnock sat in the sunshine amongst the golden bracken and I couldn't resist it despite it once again being one of those "LBJs"!

A little further along a Song Thrush was scouring the leaf litter and wet soil.  Once upon a time these were common garden birds.  As a boy I can remember finding the remains of snails shells on prominent rocks in the garden.  Today they are more likely to be found in woodland and parks than gardens.  

Throstle, Thrushel, Thurshfield and Mavis are just a few of the names the Song Thrush has been called over the ages, man being drawn to those birds with beautiful songs.  They tend to be harder to see than the Blackbird, preferring to stay more hidden as they feed amongst the bushes and leaf litter, getting one in the open is not common and they are easily spooked like most thrushes.

Knowing the song is one of the best ways to find them.  The Song Thrush uses many different notes to make up its melody.  They key is to listen for repetition, they tend to repeat nots and musical sequences, usually three times.  No Song Thrush song is the same, but there is a pattern that once learned is unmistakable.

Another piece of folklore around the Song Thrush is to do with their nests.  They make a beautiful mud-lined nest.  As a boy I can still remember coming across a nest with its sky blue speckled eggs.. There is an Irish belief that the fairies made sure a Song Thrush built its nest low down near the homes in the grass, so that the Fairies would be able to enjoy the bird's song.  If a Song Thrush built its nest high up in a thorn bush it was a sign that the Fairies were unhappy and that misfortune would come to the neighbourhood.

One final fact on the Song Thrush comes from one of it's alternative names.  West Bromwich Albion football club has the nickname "The Throstles"  This is due to the fact that in the clubs first 22 years they were based at five different grounds around West Bromwich area before finally settling at The Hawthorns, their current ground, in 1900. The new ground bought with it the team nickname The Throstles, the Black Country word for Thrush, commonly seen in the hawthorn bushes from which the area took its name.

Aside from all this folklore surrounding the bird, it is a lovely bird to see up close and another of those dismissed because of the dour plumage.

Missed out on the Great Grey Shrike, the Tawny Owl was being shy and there was no Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, but some great views of Woodlark and a chance to enjoy there song along with a nice Song Thrush encounter.  Another great day.

7th February - Blashford Lakes, Hampshire

It was the lure of the Bittern that had Ian and I meeting up early morning.  From the parked cars we walked around to the Ivy Lake North hide and waited for it to be opened.  Whilst there is limited access to open windows in the hide it is so much better than it used to be.  Then it was only two side windows that opened and the glass was tinted.  As we waited there was a couple of Goldcrest close in the trees and through a gap between the hide and the fence we could see the Kingfisher sitting on the reedmace.

Once in the hide we settled down to scan the reed bed in front of the hide with the thermal imagers.  There was a surge of hope when I picked up a heat source, but this turned out to be a Moorhen.  Other than that there was nothing showing in the reeds at all.  That said it didn't mean it was n't there it could very well have been well behind the reeds and out of sight.

We gave it about an hour and in that time we tried to string some other strange heat sources as Tawny Owl.  One turned out to be a Roe Deer while the other, the closest we never really identified. We decided the Bittern wasn't going to show so it was time to move on

From the Ivy Lake North we walked around to the Woodland hide, very little on the feeders but above us in the top of the alders was a large flock of Siskin.  We walked towards the Ivy Lake South hide and a Kingfisher was around the Settling Pond and a pair of Goldcrest were fly catching along the path.

A Jay sat nicely at the top of the trees, never an easy bird to photograph as they are so shy and skittish.

The Ivy Lake South hide was as bad as the north, very little close to the hide, what duck there were, mostly Wigeon, were on the far side of the lake.  We didn't stay long and decided to take the long walk to the Lapwing hide.  Walking along side the river there were several Song Thrush singing from the trees.

In the Lapwing hide once again all the birds, ducks and gulls were on the west side of the lake and there was absolutely nothing close to the hide.  We didn't stay long and walked around the loop, at the corner we heard splashing in the reeds and could see a Roe Deer jumping through the water and the reeds.  It was then followed by another.  What we noticed was the smell that came from the deer churning up the mud.

next stop was the Goosander Hide and at last something to look at in front of the hide.  A drake Goldeneye, alone to start with.

Then later three females appeared and the male swam to them, but we didn't see any displaying.  They flew off but a pair returned and a chance to see the female close up.

Close to the left side were two red head Goosander, for most of the time we were in the hide they never lifted their heads.

The duck came a little closer, these Wigeon flying into the bay.

We dropped into the Tern Hide after wading through the car park.  Never went in the hide as we were told there was a group in the hide and there was nothing close to the hide.  We scanned the lake from the viewpoint and it was clear nothing was in front of the hide.  Of interest was the gathering of Shoveler on the west bank easily numbered in the hundreds.

Ian had to leave early so I walked back to the Ivy Lake North hide and settled in to see if the bittern would appear.  The thermal imager was out once again and found something in the reeds on the left side, but couldn't see anything that looked anything like a Bittern.  Here the view from the hide.

A Cormorant appeared close to the channel in the reeds on the right hand side.

Cormorants have a prehistoric look about them, with a long sinuous neck, bare yellow skin around the face and a pure emerald green eye; If birds can be said to have an expression a cormorant looks as if it has seen the world and has a dim view of it.

There are two subspecies of cormorant in the United Kingdom. There's the mostly coastal nesting Phalacrocorax carbo carbo, and there's Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, which arrived from continental Europe and has led the increase of inland cormorant nesting colonies.  This birds shows the white feathers on the top of the head and neck which is the breeding plumage of the sub species "sinesis".

Then a bit of a surprise, I though at first it was one of the Goldcrests, but a closer look showed it to be a Firecrest.  I can't recall ever seeing a Firecrest in a reed bed before, but I suppose it was taking advantage of the good number of insects around the reeds, the Firecrest coming from the pine and holly behind the hide.

Stunning little birds and this one was very active moving quickly through the reeds.

I had been concentrating on the reeds to the left of the left hand channel, but when another birder with a thermal imager came intot he hide, he picked up a shape on the right hand side at the back of the reeds.  In this area there is a bank that stretches around to the reed beed that runs to the Ivy lake south hide, so a Bittern could have come around from there.  I was able to find the image with my camera, but it took some effort to find it with the bins and then the camera.  Not one of my best Bittern photographs but it is clearly a Bittern.

It moved around a little and preened but never came anywhere near showing well.  Eventually it turned and then disappeared around the back of the reeds and away in the direction I had suggested it might have come from.  But what of the other image I saw on the left hand side?  On Sunday it was reported that there were now two bitterns seen from the hide, so was it one?  I will never know.

The end of a day that could have been a disaster, but thanks to the Goldeneye and the Firecrest and of course the bittern sighting, it turned out not so bad.

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