As alluded to previously, I sort of promised myself I'd go to local sites beyond Barton a bit more this year, and figured I may as well get cracking as soon as possible, so have strayed a little this week. Have still managed a few Barton visits this week (helps that a lot of my work - such as it is at this time of year - is within patch boundaries) but also made a point of getting out into the New Forest proper: we actually live within the National Park boundary, but I get criminally lazy about exploring the Forest itself, it's always something I'll get round to another day, but rarely actually do (being so patch fixated doesn't help).
This beauty has probably been the highlight, even if the pictures don't do it any sort of justice; it put on quite a show. Could never tire of a Hen Harrier, or any harrier, and always special to see a male.
A morning was spent in one of the core ancient woodland areas of the New Forest, where Bramblings were abundant, with upwards of 300 seen in total. Most were in the treetops, or else right by the road and every time I got close a car, or a group of cyclists inexplicably shouting at each other two yards apart, would go past and flush them all up, but eventually I managed to creep up on a flock of about 30 for some vaguely passable pics.
Three in this pic, honest
A different three
About 25 Crossbills seen and heard included some nicely perched up, but they were horrible to photograph in the dull light. These are the best of a bad bunch and have been lightened as much as possible, or else they'd be a lot worse. Some singing going on, and plenty of entertaining aerial squabbling. This is a species I rather embarrassingly didn't see at all last year, but this after loads of sightings in 2020, when there was an influx into the village in midsummer and I got them at home most days.
Both pics 65x zoom plus full crop plus major lightening!
Several each of Treecreeper and Nuthatch were seen, but photographing these was virtually beyond me. It was a big surprise that anything is in focus in the Nuthatch picture. Just too bad it's not the Nuthatch. But still better than anything I managed with the several Marsh Tits. Didn't come close with either Firecrest! Another nice record, albeit heard only, was a very vocal Goshawk not too far away in a stand of conifers. I didn't try too hard to locate it, preferring to leave it in peace.
Efforts at Barton have added another 19 to the patch year list (69 now), including Black-throated Diver (two records last year), Firecrest (one last year) and Chiffchaff (my first winter record there). Also the wintering Purple Sandpipers (26 of them) put in an appearance - they move between here and Dorset depending on the tides and sea state (the rocks are often unusable for them due to surf), but are regular enough, I just don't always get to check all the groynes.
Also the Little Grebe, which must have been lurking in the remnants of rushes on the roadside pools the whole time; doesn't say a lot for my skills on New Year's Day, but managed to sneak up on it for the year tick and a poor photo.
Absolute highlight of patch this week, however, wasn't even a year tick: what was presumably the same Marsh Harrier as I saw on 1st went over again, headed towards Hengistbury again, but on a much nicer day, and directly overhead. Even I managed to get some half reasonable photos for a change! Like I say, something special about a male harrier!
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