Friday 5th August 2016 (c)

The New Forest, Hampshire

One of the many ponds in the New Forest.

The title of this final section of the write-up of my holiday is a bit of a misnomer. Although I did make multiple visits to the New Forest, none of them were for any length of time and I wasn't really able to search for anything. On the way from the airport on arrival we stopped at a couple of car parks with the kids whilst we waited for MacDonalds to open, and drove around the lanes for a while. It was a Friday, and suddenly mid-morning it seemed that every car in the south of England had suddenly decided to visit. I was so surprised to see that New Forest Ponies were everywhere - even walking through the middle of the towns. I also had a brief stop midweek on another trip back from the airport but it was almost dusk and I didn't get much further than grabbing a few mystery plants. And there was also a very brief final stop on the final day, again just looking around car parks!

A New Forest pony

Despite these very brief visits, I did manage to find a few new species of plants. My favourites were the Sundews growing in the boggy areas and pond-sides, something that I cannot remember seeing before in the wild. The other new plants were White Water-lily, Water-purslane, Common Yellow-sedge, Bulbous Rush, Marsh St. John's-wort, Bog Pimpernel, Lesser Skullcap and New Zealand Pygmyweed. There did not seem to be any birds in the New Forest - not that I saw anyway! However, the dusk drive through the northern part of the forest and into Fordingbridge from the East was so atmospheric and one of my favourite parts of the trip.

Sundew, New Forest

White Water-lily, New Forest

Bog Pimpernel, New Forest

Lesser Skullcap, New Forest

As a family, we did make a visit to the nature reserve at Blashford Lakes. It looked a pretty nice place with some good walks, but due to "family concerns" I barely saw anything!

Egyptian Geese - Blashford Lakes

We also visited a "Raptor and Owl Centre" on the edge of the New Forest. My usual concerns about creatures in captivity goes without saying, nevertheless it was actually terrific to see such bird species at very close quarters, especially when they were flying the massive birds and the kids had never seen owls and the like before in the flesh.

Eagle Owl

Eagle Owl

Burrowing Owl

Sparrowhawk

Red Kite

"Chilean Blue Eagle"

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Friday 5th August 2016 (b)

Martin Down, Hampshire

The meadows of Martin Down

Rockbourne village was only a few miles drive from the nature reserve of Martin Down, which is on the rolling chalk hills of the Cranborne Chase area. So, during our week there, I visited the site on three occasions and I loved the extensive wild flower meadows that were there. My first visit was on a very hot morning with the boys and I was actually quite overwhelmed by the number and variety of species on offer! I was seeing unfamiliar things every few minutes, but it was too hot to stay out for too long. So, I went back in the evening to the top part of the reserve with my dad, but it was rather blowy by then, and so few insects were flying. A few days later, I had another nice sunny hour or so there, but again it was quite breezy. I know that I only really scraped the surface of what was there and could have found a lot more. I had visited Martin Down years ago when I was a student with the BUBO lads and I remember seeing Adonis Blue and Stone Curlew there, but that was just a distant memory now of course.

The reserve isn't really there for birds but Buzzards were regularly soaring overhead and a Raven was also seen. We had what seemed to be a family party of Corn Buntings on the top, but the highlight for me was the calling Turtle Doves which were no doubt breeding in the little copses that dotted the meadows.

Martin Down

There was a good selection of butterflies seen although I only saw one species which was totally new to me - Essex Skipper. For this I had to look through the more common Small Skippers until I found one with jet black dots on the underside of the tips of the antennae. As well as the more common species that I also see in Guernsey, I saw quite a few Brimstones and some fast-flying Dark Green Fritillaries. My favourite though was a Marbled White, a species I had only seen once before and that was over 20 years ago!

Brimestone, Martin Down

Small Skipper, Martin Down

Marbled White, Martin Down

Marbled White, Martin Down

Moth-wise, I saw surprisingly few day-flying species, with Six-spot Burnet being the most obvious. I did flush the odd micro as I walked but I mostly ignored these. The other species recorded were Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, Silver Y and, just sat resting on a leaf, my first Small Waved Umber.

Six-spot Burnet, Martin Down

Small Waved Umber, Martin Down

I saw a variety of other insects in the meadows, most being left unidentified of course. However, I did take some snaps of the obvious ones and so ticked off a couple of new ones shown in the pictures below. My nephew found a fabulous Bloody-nose Beetle on the track by the car park which he picked up and it promptly did what it says on the tin!

Meadow Grasshopper, Martin Down

Calocoris roseomaculatus, Martin Down

The biggest variety of new species came from the plants and flowers, quite a few of which I needed internet ID assistance with from photos after returning home. I saw plenty of species that do not occur in Guernsey but I was familiar with from the old days back in the UK. The new species I recorded were: Wild Parsnip, Yellow Rattle, Squinancywort, Wayfaring Tree, Common Rock-rose, Wild Mignonette, Common Valerian, Dropwort, Dwarf Thistle, Traveller's-joy, Small Scabious. I definitely saw other, less obvious species but I'll have to leave those for another time.

Dark Green Fritillary, Martin Down - not exactly what you'd call 'fresh'.