Hill Head and Botley Woods 05/03/26

Well, it's March. Already. Scary. The business was as usual this morning, with things to do in the Fareham area, and afterwards going down to the haven with Joe and Peter. After that, we went to Botley Woods/Whiteley Pastures to complete some business that needed to be done... we're helping out with a woodpecker project and have various things to do in the Fareham/Petersfield area... anyways, less said the better. I didn't get too many photos today, but stick around, a pretty special bird turned up... 

We pick up at Titchfield Haven, where we were searching for some Black-necked Grebes...

We started by the chalets where two Black-necked Grebes had been reported. After a while searching there with no sign, we decided to move on and walked around towards the harbour. A few Great Crested Grebes were about, along with Black-headed Gulls, Ruddy Turnstones, Mute Swans and a juvenile Common Gull.

Still with no sign of the grebes here, we walked on and up onto cliff road to get a higher vantage point, but to no avail. Many gulls were around, and a Dunnock was happily singing its heart out in the sun.

After a while looking about, we went back down the steps, passing the harbour, where a few Ruddy Turnstone still were, again and made it back to the van, where we sat for a while having lunch.

After a bit of deliberation, we decided to head over to Whitely Pastures and Botley Woods, with not much else to look at here. 

I've never been before, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like. We arrived and walked in, immediately hearing a Firecrest calling from some trees. A few Blue Tits were around, along with a Chaffinch that flew over. 

It was, in truth, quite an incredible place. Situated right outside a brand new estate, once inside the woods, you feel as though you could be hours and hours from any civilisation. Really cool.

We had, as mentioned before, something we needed to do whilst we were here. Whilst we were completing our task, I heard a large rustling of leaves behind us. I swivelled round. What met my eyes was a bit of a shock to my system.

I couldn't believe it. There, flying away, was a medium-sized brownish bird with a noticeable beak. Indeed, this was a Woodcock. Wow! Feeling slightly shocked at the sudden appearance of a bird I've missed by mere minutes so, so many times, I was speechless. What an incredible bird. I didn't manage any photos, as the sighting was so brief, but I couldn't care less. To be honest, it was a very weird experience. Just going about doing normal stuff, and out of nowhere, bang! A lifer! Number 217 on the British list. Incredible! What a start to March! Yeaaaahhhhh! 

I still feel really excited. I'm sure you can tell...

We walked around for a while longer, keeping our eyes out for things, but only a Nuthatch was noted. After feeling as though we had done sufficient birding, we headed back to the exit and went back home. 

Well, a slightly weird encounter kicking March off, but a brilliant one all the same! Just goes to show that anything can turn up at any time, at any place. I'm feeling very, very tired at the moment and am writing this up wayy later than I should be, really, but oh well. Apologies for the lack of much content on this post; it was just a bit of a weird one, with just a crazy 5 seconds making the whole trip interesting! All the same, hope it was enjoyable to read:) Good night all.

Fleet Pond 28/02/26

Well, the year is racing on, isn't it! I've been meaning to go out with a younger birding friend for a while, and finally, an opportunity presented itself last Monday, when a Ring-necked Duck was found at Moor Green Lakes in Berkshire. Plans were made, but on Wednesday, the duck disappeared from Moor Green. With the plan to go out on Saturday, it was a shame for the duck to have gone AWOL, but later that day it was found over the county border in Hampshire... brilliant. Fleet Pond is brilliant to get to from public transport- the pond is literally right outside the train station. So plans were finalised, and with the duck seemingly staying put and apparently showing well at times, I woke up on Saturday morning really looking forward to the trip. I was dropped off in Alton, met up with my friend, bought our train tickets, and got on the train. 

The journey went smoothly and was graced by a Sparrowhawk whilst waiting for our train at Brookwood. 

We arrived at Fleet at 9:06 and immediately walked over to some birders who seemed to be looking at something. A few Redwings were in the bushes, and a few Blue Tits and Great Tits were around. After looking around the pond, we couldn't see any sign of the duck, so we headed up on top of the car park to get a better view of the pond and see if the birder up there had seen it yet. Unfortunately, he had not, so we set up our scopes and started scanning the lake. 

There were plenty of Tufted Ducks, Canada Geese, Mallards, and Black-headed Gulls. There were also a few Pochards, Cormorants, Greylag Geese, Great Crested Grebes, Mute Swans, and Gadwall. 

A Greenfinch was heard calling, and some more Redwing were moving about.

With no sign of the duck, we went back down and walked onto the small viewing platform to get some close views of Pochard and Great Crested Grebe.

With nothing much moving about, we started walking around the lake. A Pied Wagtail flew over, and there was quite a bit moving around the woodland area. We stood for a while watching some stunning Siskins, a few Goldfinches were about, along with a couple of Robins, Wrens, Great Tits, Blue Tits, and some more Redwing. A Reed Bunting was calling from some reeds, as well.

We continued on and made it to another viewing platform, where some Cormorants were much closer, and some more Gadwall, Tufted Ducks, Greylag Geese, and Black-headed Gulls were visible. 

This was really, really great. There was so much to look at, and while the target duck was not appearing, there were so many cool things to watch. So much of the time its so easy to just ignore the more common things in pursuit of a rare bird, we end up not enjoying ourselves. But here we were with no sign of the duck, absolutely loving it. Due to the large range of habitats here, there was such a variety of things, and some really cool birds around. The weather was absolutely brilliant, with the sun beaming over the reserve, and a cool breeze moving through. This was, other than the absence of the duck, perfect. 

A Great Spotted Woodpecker interrupted our scanning of the lake, and after watching it for a bit, we moved on. 

We continued on, stopping off at various points to look over the lake and scan the trees for anything interesting. 

As we made it to the top of the lake, we saw a deer that was just standing therebefore it went off into the woods. 

We continued on and saw another Great Spotted Woodpecker, and another group of Goldfinches and Siskins, a few Dunnocks were on the move, along with a Goldcrest and its scarcer counterpart the Firecrest. Numerous Great and Blue Tits were also about, and a few Wrens were singing. 

We made it to another viewing platform which produced brilliant views of Tufted Ducks, Gadwall, and Mallards. An impressive 17 Mute Swans were around the platform, and some Moorhens and Coots were around. A Cormorant flew over as well... there were just birds left right and center!

We continued on around and made it back to the car park, having completed a full circuit around the pond. The Redwing were still about, but were all stubbornly refusing a photo. 

We got on the platform we started at again, and watched all the ducks, still scanning for the Ring-necked Duck but to no avail. A stunning Great Crested Grebe came very close in good light, but after a while of watching everything, we moved on heading towards a bench, where we sat down, discussed the day's birding so far, and ate lunch basking in the sun. 

Finally, I managed a photo of a Redwing, not my best but here it is.

Lunch was thoroughly enjoyed, and we both agreed that the Firecrest was probably the best thing we had seen so far, along with the smart drake Gadwall, Siskins, and the Pochards. Despite the absence of the duck, we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

A Sparrowhawk put in an appearance before flying off over the lake. 

We decided to do a loop around the heathland and woodland, so we headed off in that direction. 

We spent a while walking around, with a Nuthatch, another few Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Coal Tit, a heard Green Woodpecker, a stunning Jay and another Firecrest seen. The variety was just incredible!

After enjoying all the wood and heathland birds, we made it back to the pond, and with time disappearing quickly, we decided to start heading back in the direction of the train station.

As we went round a corner, I noticed a Grey Heron flying in amongst the reeds, accompanied by an egret... of sorts. "That might be a Great White!", I cried. "Yep",
came the reply from my companion. And a Great White Egret it was. It actually had a frog in its mouth as well- very, very cool to see.

We were looking through some trees, so we walked around the path to an open area, where we got just incredible views of this "long-legged beasty" as it has been described before.

We moved on as it went out of view, and soon came to one of the viewing platforms. I scanned and didn't notice anything new, but my friend exclaimed: "There's a Goosander!" And there sure was. I got onto it and got some photos. Yet another brilliant species! This was fast becoming a favourite place for both of us. 

We watched the Goosander for a while longer before heading back to the viewing platform by the station, watching a few things, including a Great Crested Grebe,
there for a bit longer, and, very reluctantly, headed to the train station and took the train back. Incidentally, we saw a third Sparrowhawk of the day on the journey back!

Well, what a wonderful trip. So many incredible species seen... it hardly feels sad we missed the duck... If you're thinking about a trip to Fleet Pond at some point, I'd definitely recommend! The variety of incredible heathland birds, woodland birds, and wetland birds makes for an incredible experience. There's not too much around at the moment, but hopefully something will turn up soon. I must admit I am finishing this post very, very late... things have just gotten in the way, and we saw so much, the post has taken ages to write, and so many photos to edit! Well, hope you've enjoyed!

Also, to explain why no garden updates were put out on Saturday, I was busy with a mock exam last week, so I didn't have time to fit anything in. Hopefully be back this Saturday!

:)

Acres Down NF 23/02/26

I realised with a bit of a jolt yesterday that today, Monday, was the last Monday of the month. Which also means Dad's final day off in the month... so of course I got straight down to looking around if there was anywhere we could go this morning. For a bit of context, us three kids alternate months to go out for a meal with Dad and do something (I always pick birding ofc), and this month is my turn, and its not ideal the trip trailing over to the next month. So, I had to find somewhere to go today, or the trip would be postponed for a while. Also the fact that it wasn't raining all day today probably won't happen again this year sooo.... Anyway, with some reports of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker being seen at Acres Down, I asked Dad if that would work, we agreed it did, so booked breakfast at the Beefeater in Cosham (it's the best one around imo). I suppose I should stop using "keyboard slang" such as ofc, imo, lol, etc. etc.... pretty sure fellow Gen Z's aren't quite the audience I'm getting... 

We left late as usual at around 7:10 and arrived 10 minutes late for our breakfast, which we thoroughly enjoyed before forgetting to fill up on petrol on our way out of Cosham. The traffic was awful through Southampton, and managed to work out a way for us to go past Southampton Airport in the only 10 minutes a plane wasn't landing or taking off. Typical. The petrolometer(I think I've invented a word there) continued going down, but we made it to Acres Down finally with a brilliant 20 miles in the tank... dont ask why we didn't fill up on the way... more on this later though...

We arrived at about 9:30... long after we had been hoping. I was 90% certain we wouldn't miss the woodpecker as most days it had been seen between 7-9 A.M. at the latest. But, all the same we got out the car and walked towards "the tree." Only three or four birders were there, which was a little bit of a surprise, when we dipped it last year, there had been about twenty around. The news was good and bad- the woodpecker had been heard briefly about 45 minutes ago, but no one had actually seen it and there had been no sign since the brief drumming 45 minutes erlier. 

Quite a few Chaffinches were moving about, along with plenty of Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits. A few Robins were singing, but after 15 minutes there was no sign at all of the woodpecker. Two Dunnocks flew into the top of the dead tree getting our hopes up for a second, but that was all. 

I didn't, for some reason take a photo of the tree for those who haven't been before to see it, but sometimes the noodles don't think straight... well, here's a photo of it on Ebird for you- ML651080073 - Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - Macaulay Library 

Finally, something of interest was about with 4 Stock Doves landing on the tree- always great to see.

Still nothing was showing, so I got chatting to two other birders one from Somerset the other from Staines... they had been putting off leaving for ages, but finally decided to go- they'd been there since 7 this morning. One of them, who apparently the birds all hate and turn up always after he's left, said that the bird would almost certainly turn up now that he was going, and with that, off they walked. I jokingly said to Dad "Should I start a timer?" in reference to a certain time at Titchwell- read it here if you want In Flight: Aves Observata: RSPB Titchwell Marshes- 30/10/25 

Surely that wouldn't happen again...? Lighting doesn't strike the same place twice, right?

But unfortunately, and much to the frustration of thousands of birders across the globe, certain birds seem to just really not want to see specific people. So yes, of course, it happened again. 

Right on cue, after just a minute, in it flew, landing in the famed tree. 

"There it is" was the cry in unison from the 5 birders present. And there it was all right. A stunning Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. What a bird!

I know I'm not very original its always "what a bird" when a good bird turns up but it always is just a "what a bird!" moment when a lifer turns up.

I was buzzing, absolutely static. I got the scope on it... incredible views. Dad got the bird through the bins, before I went to photographing the bird and he could look through the scope. Just as I was wondering if this could get any better, it drummed. If you think hearing a Great Spot drum is impressive, you need to see one of these lil guys. The noise they make is so loud... and they are, well tiny. The size of a sparrow in fact. Europes smallest woodpecker making a noise from drumming on dead wood that could be heard from a mile away. Wow!

I was really, like really enjoying this. Here's a BW edit.

Here's a heavily cropped image.

It continued happy drumming, before preening for a while and moving slightly further up the tree. You could really see the red cap identifying it as a male while it was preening.

It continued for another 30 seconds or so, before drumming one last breathtaking time, before looking around, and flying off above our heads.

Now, before continuing in over revelling in the delight of seeing the bird, I should mention that the birder who missed it heard the bird drumming and managed to get back to see it. Which was great... now back to the important stuff

I was so thrilled. Having missed these a few times already, it was so, so good to finally lay eyes on these tiny delights. This bird puts my British list up to 216 (I think) which is incredible. It comes as a brilliant third lifer of the yrar, and the first of Feb. Previous two being the Cirl Bunting and the Killdeer. Yet another successful Feb time out with Dad seeing scarce British residents- last year we saw the Long-eared Owls at Pagham. He was so pleased to have seen it too... with the traffic on the way it was quite a drive so it was so, so good for the trip to have paid off. It's always just so cool to finally lay eyes on a species that you've dipped before. And especialy an incredible one like this. Wow. 

Seeing as the bird had flown right off, we decided to walk around the area, so headed back towards the car park and up the hill to the raptor viewpoint. 

Quite a few Buzzards were about, but the best thing that was seen were 4 or 5 Ravens flying around loudly cronking, really cool. Here's one direct into the sun...

We walked down the hill on a path that seemingly abruptly stopped. Knowing there was a path somewhere up the hill on our left, I took what looked like a suitable route in that direction. Well to not sugarcoat it, I ended up on my side in muddy water, my right hand, glove and sleeve all fully submerged, and carrying out a very delecate balancing act keeping my scope I have on loan completely dry, whilst also managing to do the same with my camera, bins and bag. But, the less said about me wallowing in mud the better, so I shall move on. 

After we were on the path... we heard a Woodlark singing and saw it overhead. It unfortunately didn't land, but we heard its song very well. Another one soon appeared but also didn't land.

We walked around the heathland for quite a while, with some incredible Buzzard views and one raptor which may have been a Goshawk seen briefly but in very bad lighting. The Ravens were also always about, it was so great to see them up close and well. 

It was so great to just watch the horizon with the raptors circling, with the call of Woodlarks in our ears. Relaxing is the word I think. Very, very relaxing. As I mentioned in my last post at Southsea, and sorry to use Gen Z lingo again, but birding just hits different sometimes. It really does. Love it.

The Woodlarks moved on, and with time pressing we reluctantly thought we should start heading back in the direction of the car, making sure to stay on proper paths this time...

As we got right near the raptor viewpoint, a Firecrest was heard calling and a Lesser, or well I suppose just a Redpoll now was seen. 

At the viewpoint, a Buzzard was actually perched in a tree very close, which made for incredibly detailed scope views, and some decent photos.

Here's the view from the viewpoint, it always catches me by surprise every time I'm here. And with one last look out towards the horizon, admiring the incredible beauty of this world, and specifically the New Forest, we headed off and home...

I did mention earlier about the petrol situation. Well, it seemed alright as google reckoned it would be just 11 miles to a bp, and with 20 left in the tank, we got on the road thinking we would be fine. But then google changed its mind when it picked up data, and said it would be 21 miles. Oof. So, after a bit of frantic searching, I found a place in the opposite direction... only 5 miles away. Phew. We went there got some petrol (not much, it was 137.39, sooo pricey) and started driving again with one more stop to acquire necessary hot drinks and some cookies that were on offer... who doesn't love cheap food, like I mean come on!

Well, what a day. I'm sitting here bleary eyed having finished table tennis training half-an-hour early to get home so I could write this, and also because I am very, very tired. We did, of course manage to hit one of the millions of potholes and burst our tyre on the way home from table tennis, so I'm finishing this much later than i wouldve liked. Well, I still can't quite believe we actually saw the bird! Such a tiny gem. Things do seem pretty slow at the minute, but there's a certain duck in Berkshire at the minute that may well require a visit... we'll see (my favourite two words at this point). On that note, I'm going to end here. Sorry to not have much to say, I usually spend ages on these conclusions, but I neeeed to sleep. Good night:)

GARDEN BIRDING #3 17-22/02/26

It's the holidays. Which, normally, would mean a full week of birding. But being England, it was raining most of the time... so the holidays entailed lots of wet dog walks, sleeping in, listening to England scrape past Associate teams in the T20 WC, enjoying the annual Arsenal bottling of the league, and then being dissapointed by yet another shocking Chelsea performance against the worst of the newly promoted teams(😒) So, naturally, not as much garden birding has been squeezed in, but all the same some great species were seen, including two new birds... so overall a good result i guess! We only got home from London late on Monday, so this week's post starts with Tuesday:)

Tuesday 17/02

Tuesday was a day with not much really about, but the usuals were seen, including Goldfinches(of which the number has increased largely recently), Sparrows, Blue Tits, Jackdaws, Crows, Robins, Magpies, Woodpigeons, Feral Pigeons, Long-tailed Tits and Starlings. Two good things were a Wren that I managed to get a photo of (first photo of one I've got in the garden) and a Black-headed Gull that flew past- only the second one seen here. Botd goes to the Wren... great to finally get evidence they are present:)

Wren

Wednesday 18/02

Wednesday held one clear highlight, but the common species included Goldfinches, Robins, Woodpigeons, Starlings, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Jackdaws, Sparrows, and Magpies. The highlight in question was four Siskins (2M, 2F) that were with the Goldfinches mid-morning. 

Goldfinches and Siskins

Thursday 19/02

Thursday was quite misty, but held some good species. Usuals included Sparrows, Blue Tits, Jackdaws, Crows, Robins, Magpies, Woodpigeons, Great Tits, Wrens, Long-tailed Tits and Starlings. The three good birds were a Buzzard circling in the afternoon, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, and the Greenfinches again. Botd goes to the Great Spotted Woodpecker, always a privilege to see. 

Friday 20/02

Friday was mainly making up for the lack of birding done in the previous few days. Lots and lots of birds were seen, including a garden tick... All of the above-mentioned usuals were present, along with some slightly better species being two Herring Gulls, a Song Thrush, and a Collared Dove. The Greenfinches were heard again, and the male Bullfinch made its first appearance of the week, but the overwhelming winner of the best bird of the day goes to two Cormorants that flew past lateish afternoon, making for a garden tick:) Two foxes were also about mid-morning, the first I've actually seen here.

Collared Dove (above), Magpie, Song Thrushes, Cormorants, Bullfinch and a Fox

Saturday 21/02

Saturday was practically void of any birding, but a brief look mid-morning produced what I presume to be a Herring Gull circling about, and bird of the day went to a long, long overdue garden tick in the form of a Dunnock that ever so nicely allowed me to get some photos of it.

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Another week, another two garden ticks. Considering the week didn't really hold very much commited staring out the window, I'm quite pleased with the spoils!