A trip down south

As my birder's wife was away for the weekend I decided to go and visit my sister down in Hampshire.  It is always worth visiting her, not only to catch up but also to sample the New Forest specialities.

Spoonbills roosting

So, I decided to take the day off work on Friday and arrived in Hampshire at about 8:00am and carried on through to Dorset to Purbeck.  My main aim was to see if I could find the Surf Scoter in Poole Harbour.  However, after looking from several vantage points I could not find anything out on the water, although I was hindered by the appalling conditions.  I decided to make my way to Arne Rspb instead which was nearby to at least see some interesting species like Spoonbill and Dartford Warbler.  For the morning I headed to the most northern hide and was rewarded with views of 16 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, about 15 Roe Deer and two Raven. After a brief lunch at my car I then headed south to the heath and after a walk around, soon heard the alarm call of a Dartford Warbler and after a few minutes caught a quick glimpse of the bird as it perched on top of a piece of gorse before disappearing out of sight.  The way back to the car gave me views of the resident Sika Deer.

I then decided to make my way back to my sister's house via a couple of stops.  The first stop was Blackwater Arboretum to look for Hawfinches and as I walked up the path I immediately saw 3 fly over, followed by 5 Common Crossbills and after  quick search found 2 more Hawfinches calling from the top of some trees.  The second stop was Hawkhill Inclosure which has usually been good in the past, but due to the conditions, it was devoid of birds, so I headed back for warmth and to get dry.

The following morning I decided to head out for some local birding nearby to where my sister lives and chanced upon some friendly birders, one who is the assistant county recorder for Hampshire.  Birds of note for that walk were a couple of Pintail and my first Cetti's Warbler for the year. The rest of the day was devoted to shopping near Portsmouth and I resisted the temptation of going for the overwintering Ring Billed Gull at Gosport.  In the afternoon I then headed out for some more local birding and watched Cormorants come into to roost on the local lakes.