11th January - Martin Down and the New Forest, Hampshire

Another very cold night saw the snow still around at home.  The morning dawned clear with the lovely winter colours of pink and grey as the sun came up.  I was meeting Ian at Martin Down and crossing the Forest there were signs of snow, but on arriving at the car park at the end of Sillen Lane, you could see snow on the north facing slopes of Martin Down.

We set off towards the Dyke in the same way we would do in the summer when looking for butterflies and orchids, but this was new ground once again for Martin Down, the first visit in January and the first in snow.

As we neared the Dyke, the low winter sun was breaking through the dappled clouds.

We reached the Dyke and looked back in the same way we would in the summer, today though a very different landscape.

We made our way along the Dyke with very little about.  A Red Kite appeared from behind the Dyke.

Gliding over the top of the Dyke and out of sight.

Then another appeared, this time away below us along the hedgerow that leads from the car park, the new crops providing an interesting background.

There is an area penned off for the sheep, it is here we were searching for Short-eared Owl, we were using thermal cameras, but unfortunately there was no heat source that matched what we were looking for.  The view of the sheep in the area with the snow and clouds.

We walked through the scrub looking for the other possible owl here, the Long-eared Owl.  The area is perfect with the scrub and the open grassland they like at this time of year, but again there was no sign of anything with the thermal cameras.

We walked up to the footpath that leads alongside the woodland and headed into the wood, searching again with the thermal cameras.  This time we did find a heat source, close to the base of a tree.  A closer look and this is what we saw.

A Brown Hare, and I moved around to get another view.

We were very careful not to disturb the Hare as it was cold and it looked very snug amongst the leaf litter.

The field alongside the footpath would have Hare in the spring and summer, but today it was covered in winter thrushes.  It was Redwing mostly and they were feeding on the sun lit area and in amongst them were a few Fieldfare, quite a rarity this winter.

We came back out and on to the Down once more, this time walking around the scrub, through the gorse and long grass.  It was in the gorse that I caught a very brief glimpse of an owl as it flew up.  I couldn't identify but it was either a Short-eared or Long-eared Owl.

Walking down to the bottom footpath the Red Kite was about again.  The line of hedgerow being of great interest to the Red Kite.

We stopped at the gate and watched the Song Thrushes feeding in the field, also present were several Roe Deer.  The thrushes would fly back into the hedge and the deer would look around wondering what was going on.  Then a Sparrowhawk came out of the hedge carrying prey, but went back intot he hedge and shortly came out once again this time with no prey.  It was then followed by a Buzzard that flew after it, but returned to go back to the hedge.

We had lunch and then a short walk around the area once again, but quickly realised that we were not going to see anymore, so we headed off to a special place in the New Forest.  We walked down the slope and crossed a frozen stream.  We stood around watching the scene that was emerging around us, blue skies and a low sun.

Around 14.00 we walked up to the view point where we settled in to wait for the main event.  

First up was a distant Merlin on a dead branch.

It took awhile but around 15.30 I picked up a male Hen Harrier coming over the ridge.

It flew along the ridge and seemed to drop into the gorse where I lost it because attention turned to a Goshawk that flew across in front of us.

Then another Merlin was found on what is known as the Merlin tree.  They arrive here as a pre-roost perch before going into the full roost.  It was very dark now so no prizes for this photograph.

We hung around to see if there would be any more harriers and we treated to some lovely scenery.

We decided to leave, but walked to get a little closer to the Merlin, although the picture wasn't much better.

Not a day for photography but some great birds and I reached 100 for the year with the Hen Harrier.