Gary was already thinking of a trip to the New Forest when I phoned him on Friday afternoon, so he picked me up on-route and it was only about an hour later we were standing in the Hawkhill Inclosure with 50+ other birders waiting to see an American vagrant, a Dark-eyed Junco (Not to be confused with the Dark-eyed Junkie seen most days in London) . The area was an open heath on the edge of a pine belt, with 2 recently fallen pines beside some chestnut trees. The bird had been favouring the fallen pine canopy which we understood some seed had been placed in the vicinity. A large group of
Crossbills were in the nearby trees and singing
Woodlark were seen. After about half an hour the
Dark-eyed Junco appeared in the company of
Chaffinches and
Reed Buntings. We had 3 decent scope views of the bird over the next hour or so before moving on to Shatterford stopping briefly at Hatchet pond, seeing a
Little Egret and surprisingly 6
Goosander.
From the Shatterford car park we walked out towards Bishops Dyke and located the
Great Grey Shrike in birches and good scope views before the bird moved on, such a lovely looking bird, shame it wasn't a bit closer for a pic. We walked a little into the woods on the advice from another birder that he had seen some Brambling feeding on Beech Mast. We saw
Treecreepers, Nuthatch, Long-tailed Tits,Siskin, Goldcrest and
Marsh Tit but no the sign of the Brambling.
Next we went to Blashford Lakes in the hope of locating the Ferruginous Duck. Once we'd worked out the system of lakes we had numerous wildfowl,
Pochard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, more
Goosander and 2
Green Sandpiper, but no sign of the Ferruginous Duck.
Our last stop was back into the forest and to Blackwater Aboretum, at least 5
Hawfinches were seen arriving at the tops of the trees along with
3 Brambling, Siskin and
Lesser Redpoll. We noted how it was still almost light at 4.30 !!! - Spring must be just around the corner !
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| Male Crossbill |
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| Dark-eyed Junco |
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| Male Goosander |
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| female / juvenile Goosanders |
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| New Forest - view near Bishops Dyke |
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