12th March - Backley Bottom, New Forest, Hampshire

After lunch at Pennington we set off for the New Forest.  Parking at the Canadian War Memorial we walked towards the Bolderwood inclosure.  The concern coming inland from the coast was that we might run into some inclement weather, but the conditions were just as we left, blue skies and the odd white cloud.

Walking down the main path there were Redwing and Fieldfare on either side of the path flying off towards the heath, but we were stopped by a stag Fallow Deer that ambled across the path and into the bushes on the other side of the path.  We followed it and soon realised that there was quite a big herd in amongst the bushes, including several stags with impressive palmate antlers.

Fallow is the only deer species in the UK with palmate antlers. These become full-sized after the deer are three/four years old and can reach up to 0.7m in length.

Fallow deer are native to Asia and were introduced into the UK by the Normans around the 11th century. They subsequently escaped from deer parks and were intentionally released into hunting forests. Today, they are widespread and the most common deer in England.

Fallow deer are very variable in colour; some are white, others very dark brown (conventionally called “black fallow”), and a variety known as Menil, spotted but with the edges to the rump patch and tail stripe brown, rather than black.

In the autumn the forest is full of the grunts and barks of the stags as they undergo the rut and defending their hinds, however at this time of year the stags are quite happy mixing together to forage and feed.

We were not far from the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary where there is a viewing platform over an open meadow, the deer are fed here through spring and summer and it is then no coincidence that there are good numbers in the area.

Leaving the deer we continued down the path and into the Bolderwood inclosure, Siskin and Redwing could be heard above.  We were heading for Sandy Ridge and immediately came across a problem, we had to cross a stream.  After finding a way across the next problem was a fence so in the end we had to follow the stream and then turn up hill once the fence was gone.

The area was very birdless which was a change from when I was here in November.  Reaching the ridge it was a case of scanning the tree tops in the valley, looking for a white blob.  We were here to try and find the reported Great Grey Shrike that has been present here on and off through the winter.

We crossed the stream in Backley Bottom and found a place where we could scan the valley with the sun behind us.  Very little was moving or about.  The only birds were the call of Meadow Pipits and this pair of Stonechat.

Our view looking across the valley bottom.

A lovely setting that was only missing one thing, the Great Grey Shrike.  The even more frustrating thing was the that it had only recently been reported.

We walked down and across the valley once more continually scanning the tree tops without any luck.  Here a view of the trees and surrounding heath on the north side of the valley.

After a while and a lot of scanning we decided we were not going to find the Great Grey Shrike, so headed back up to the ridge and then took the path back down towards the Inclosure.  Along the way there were clumps of Holly trees and from the Holly trees there was the song of several Firecrests

They seemed to ne everywhere moving around the bushes catching flies and singing.

On reaching the main path we came across one clump of Holly trees with possibly four Firecrests present.

Love this look, "who you looking at?".

Flitting between bushes.

We passed several more on the way back to the car.

The end of a great day in many ways, weather photography, scenery and the wildlife