Friends of the New Forest and re-wilding

The Friends of the New Forest have arranged a special evening at Lyndhurst Community Centre on 21 February 2019 with a talk by Sir Charles Burrell. He has re-wilded his Knepp Estate in West Sussex, where as a result the breeding populations of Turtle Dove, Nightingale and Purple Emperor are the highest in the country! The talk will be followed by a question and answer session discussing the relevance of re-wilding to the New Forest.

What does ‘rewilding’ mean? Is it much more than just beavers, lynx, cranes and red squirrels? How are the New Forest Pine Martens doing as newcomers? Has it any place in a landscape maintained by free-roaming livestock? It'll be worth finding out!

Walk report: 03 January 2019 Keyhaven

On a chilly, but calm and dry morning, 19 of us met up at Keyhaven for the first LymNats walk of the year. We started overlooking the Keyhaven reedbeds where two Marsh Harriers were resting on the Blackthorn hedge - a female and an immature male, and some saw a Green Woodpecker fly over. Passing the MCV Bird Observatory overlooking The Pans gave those who hadn’t seen this enterprising project the chance to have a peep inside the locked gate.

Red-breasted Merganser - male

© Tina Vaughan

As we walked round the harbour westwards it soon became apparent that on the outward leg the hightide would limit the number of shorebirds seen, so after Brian’s Red-breasted Merganser we turned to a bit of out of season botanising – Wild Carrot, Red Clover and Sea Mayweed were found and perhaps slightly out of sync with the time of year. Gorse however was to be expected for the age-old adage says that ‘kissing’s out of fashion when Gorse is out of bloom’.

As we neared the point where the seawall meets the western end of Saltgrass Lane several Reed Buntings posed along the hedgerow and a distant Peregrine was seen with the aid of the telescopes out on the saltings. Towards Cut Bridge Rock Pipits and Turnstones fed along the edge of the road and in the field inland were Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails, but unfortunately we failed to locate the Water Pipit that had been with them yesterday. A male Stonechat is always a nice bird to see.

Stonechat © Tina Vaughan

Reed Bunting © Chris Robinson

From the top of the shingle above Cut Bridge we looked out over the calm but empty sea. A good vantage point, albeit a chilly one. Pressing on towards Sturt up to 20 juvenile Brent Geese were in the flock of some 500 birds grazing in the field across the stream. A great improvement in the species’ breeding success last summer over the previous one.

Heading back to Keyhaven gave us the opportunity to warm up with a brisker walk and to see a few additional birds as Dunlin and Grey Plover took advantage of the mudflats exposed by the now falling tide. 

It was a satisfying walk with some 45 bird species being noted. A special thanks to Chris, Richard S and Tina for the use of their photos   RC

Reed Bunting © Tina Vaughan

(left) Turnstone (right) Dunlin

both © Richard Smith

Walk report: 20 December Vereley

Yellow Brain

© Duncan Wright

A fine sunny winter’s day.  Ten of us set out from Vereley car park to explore Ridley Wood, a lovely wood with some very old trees.  We noted where the Holly had been pollarded to provide browse for the ponies and to let light on to the trunks of the Beech trees for the lichens.  Many rare species grow here but they are in danger of becoming shaded out by the holly.  The old timber provides a good habitat for fungi.  Among those we identified were Turkeytail, Candle Snuff, Beech Jelly Disc, Oyster Mushroom, Yellow Brain, Glistening Inkcap, and Southern Bracket Fungus.  A flock of Chaffinches flitted through the wood, including a couple of Bramblings, enjoying the beech mast. Other birds we saw included Treecreeper, Nuthatch and a pair of Buzzards.

Examining a Beech Tree

© Richard Coomber

One particular Beech tree caught our eye, a massive tree that must have been pollarded over 400 years ago, covered in a white lichen which shone in the sunlight. No digestives today, but seasonal mince pies instead! As we returned over the source of the Mill Lawn Brook which flows through Burley and Brockenhurst before joining the Lymington river Richard S spotted a small flock of Fieldfares that paused briefly in the top of a Silver Birch before flying onwards. AM