by Martin Sell
Sunday 8th February 2004
On a sunny but bracing morning, with a cold North-Westerly wind, 12 of us assembled at the small car park at the end of the lane adjacent to Pennington Marsh. Brent Geese were flying about, and the flooded fields nearby were full of Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Lapwings and Golden Plover flocks. Walking along the sea wall, we found 2 Slavonian Grebes, some Mergansers, and a distant flock of Eider. The tide was very high, and the waders were all crammed onto the remaining areas of saltmarsh not under water. Suddenly a Peregrine was spotted, having just made a kill; the feathers were flying in all directions!
Further along, at one of the lagoons on the landward side of the sea wall, gulls and Shelduck were relaxing , when a chestnut-coloured bird was spotted among them - a Ruddy Shelduck - obviously of unknown origin, but interesting nevertheless.
As we were having lunch in the lee of a blackthorn thicket, a mild commotion was caused by a fox strolling through the assembled flocks, but not perturbing them unduly! Then, to everyone's amazement, not one, but two Painted Ladies were observed flying around in the cold wind - what a welcome that must have been, compared with more favourable temperatures in North Africa or Southern Spain!
Then into the New Forest, to Blackwater Enclosure, where there is a small arboretum - very few birds about, but then at about 3.15pm the first Hawfinch appeared on the top of a large conifer. In the course of the next hour or so, we saw about another 6 or so, including one in the middle of a large conifer, which had chosen to roost there; needless to say, when we peered at it closely, it decided to fly off elsewhere!
All in all, a successful day, although the number of birds in the New Forest was far less than expected, but we hit the main target species.