New Forest: 19th - 21st June

The aim of this trip was to search for Honey Buzzard and as many heathland specialities as we could find over three days. But once again our plans were scuppered by bad weather (this time persistent heavy rain being the culprit) as well as the impeccable timing of a flu virus that decided to wipe me out for the duration of the trip, so we were far from successful.

Things couldn't have got off to a slower start when an evening walk around the heathland at Beaulieu Road on the 19th produced just a single Curlew, 2 Stonechat and a Reed Bunting! These weren't the highlights, this was about all that we saw! The 20th was our only full day and we had planned to spend several hours looking for Honey Buzzard, but being very overcast and with heavy rain predicted we decided to try for some of the specialities at Boulderwood instead. Fortunately the rain held off long enough for us to find several Firecrest (although only one was actually seen), 2 Wood Warbler, 2 Common Redstart (a female and a nice spotted juvenile), a lone Common Crossbill singing, several Siskin, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Grey Wagtail and a Roe Deer, but unfortunately photo opportunities amounted to nil.

Our final day dawned overcast and windy but at least it had stopped raining. I felt so rough by this point that we decided to spend the few hours we had left before we had to head home walking along the River Beaulieu from our hotel at Bucklers Hard to Beaulieu village. Birds were noticable by there absence (1 Redshank and 1 Little Egret being about it), but the wildflower meadows along this route were full of Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii (photo 1), Bitter Vetch Lathyrus linifolius (photo 2), Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus (photo 3) and Meadow Vetchling Lathyrus pratensis (photo 4).