Late Winter in the New Forest and an afternoon in Southsea

       I really struggle with these dark overcast winter days. Sometimes  it even  feels as though it never really gets light at all but heigh-ho spring is just around the corner apparently! With gloom forecast and delivered for this whole week so far, I was determined to get out somewhere for a days birding to cheer myself up. I had a look at various options but in the end decided on the New Forest for the morning and then Southsea for the afternoon as I fancied something a  little different and I haven’t been to the New Forest for a good few years. I had two New Forest specialties that I was particularly hoping to see, namely the Firecrest and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. There have been a few reports of the Woodpeckers drumming from a particular tree at Acres Down but I was unsure of the exact location. So I asked my birding friend, Ady, who has been there and he kindly supplied detailed directions to the foresaid tree. My plan was to be at Acres Down for 08:00 and spend a couple of hours looking for the diminutive Woodpeckers before going on a Firecrest hunt.

 

A 06:00 departure should have got me there on time but a few traffic incidents delayed me and I did not get to the “drumming” tree until just after 08:30 where I found two local birders staking it out without  success. The predicted damp dreary gloom hung heavily in the forest air and, to be honest, I wasn’t over optimistic. The only bird activity came from a few Robins and other common woodland birds. However, after what seemed much longer than it actually was, one of the locals spotted a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker right in the top of the tree canopy high above us and I got some reasonable bin views of it as it rather frantically hopped around.

 

I’ve discussed the sad demise of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the UK recently, see here. It is one of our fastest declining birds with the UK population estimated to have fallen by 81% since 1997. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) estimates that there are now only around 600 breeding pairs left with the largest population being in the New Forest. The loss  of habitat and predation by their Greater Spotted cousin are thought to be the main reasons behind their sad decline such that they are now red listed. At the present rate of decline they will be extinct in the UK in the near future. It is also said by the BTO to be sadly  in rapid decline in the rest of Europe.

 

We were hoping that our little lady would fly to the drumming tree to give us some better views and sure enough she did but only for a few moments. She scurred around a little, drummed for all of 5 seconds and then flew off not to be seen again while we were there. Altogether  much too brief for any photography but at least I had seen one this year. As she flew off I sadly pondered how many more times will I see our smallest Woodpecker?

 

As I walked back along the path towards the car park I spotted a Marsh Tit photogenically picking at moss on an old stump. I enjoyed taking a few pics until we were both disturbed by some idiot driving a large truck along the path at a ridiculous speed. The Marsh Tit, in the absence of vocalisation, is easily confused with the very similar Willow Tit. If you see a bird and are not sure which one it is you can be 99.9% sure it’s a Marsh Tit as the Willow Tit is our most rapidly declining bird. Willow Tits are unusual in that they excavate their own nesting holes in rotten tree stumps. The rapid decline is believed be due to three factors: habitat loss, competition for nest holes by other Tits particularly Blue Tits, and nest predation by the Great Spotted Woodpecker which has increased fourfold in recent times.  Fortunately they are still common across the rest of mainland Europe. The white spot you can see in my pictures on the beak near the head is diagnostic of the Marsh Tit but can sometimes be lacking. Other than that you are looking for much subtler features. The black cap of Marsh Tits is glossier than that of Willow Tits and doesn’t extend as far down the nape. Willow Tits have larger and less defined bibs than Marsh Tits, and also have pale cream edges to the wing feathers, which gives the appearance of a pale wing panel when the wings are closed.

I had a quick walk around a largely bird less heathland and then made my way to a large clump of Holly bushes where one of the locals had informed me were good for Firecrests. I stood quietly under some cover and immediately heard their unmistakable trilling call, which is somewhat higher than the common Goldcrest, thank god for hearing aids!! There seemed to be three or four birds calling from all around me but I could not lay eyes on them in the dense Holly until I looked up and saw a bright male less than a meter away from my head! It was much too close for any pics so I moved back, tried to focus on it in the dense holy and immediately realised my stupid mistake. I had the x2 extender on which can never autofocus in such challenging conditions. After ditching the extender I got some great views and a few half decent photos. Watching these tiny restless little jewels soon had the desired lifting effect on my mood and I enjoyed watching them for a good hour. Compared to their much commoner cousin, the Goldcrest, the Firecrest is brighter looking, with a green back, white belly, bronze 'collar' and a black and white eye-stripe. They have a yellow and black stripe on their heads, which has a bright orange centre on males. There is estimated to be some 2000 breeding pairs in the UK compared to some 600,000 Goldcrest pairs.

    

I spent the afternoon as planned at Southsea where quite a few years back Jeremy and I had very close views of Purple Sandpipers on a jetty. Substantial recent work on improving sea defences, consisting of many large rocks being placed on the shoreline, has made it much harder to see them well. I did see a few snoozing on the rocks some way away but much too far for any pics. So, as is traditional, here is one I did earlier!

 

I also found a, again rather distant, Red-necked Grebe that had been reported that morning, a much less than annual bird from me. Another birder also pointed out a Great Northern Diver giving quite good views as it fished towards the pier. Around the old castle, where Henry VIII had watched the Mary Rose sink on her maiden voyage, a pair of Black Redstarts danced around in the rapidly decreasing light.

 

My highlight from a good days birding was undoubtably  the wonderful views I had of the Firecrests in the morning and I will certainly go back for more at some point!

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!