New Forest again..........

31 July - An excellent few hours in the New Forest. The first bird I saw on arrival at Acres Down was a soaring Honey Buzzard! good scope views for about 10 minutes til it drifted off SW. Floppy flight, distictive profile, dark carpal patches and tail barring all seen well. Also - 10 Common Buzzards, Peregrine, 2 Hobbies and a Goshawk.......other birds included flyover Crossbill and Siskin. A Dartford Warbler was calling at Slufter's Pond while I looked for Dragonflies. In the evening, a Barn Owl and a Little Egret seen at Purton, so, 7 raptors and an Owl for the day, including 3 Red Kites and 3 Kestrels seen on the journey.

Local goodies......

July 23 - A Little Egret flew along the river at the bottom of the paddocks late afternoon, and a Barn Owl was hunting a field along Stoke Common Lane at 9.15pm.

Common Scoter at CWP

17 July - A surprising midsummer sighting in the form of a pair of Common Scoter on pit 41, looking slightly incongruous amongst the Great Crested Grebes and the fishing Common Terns.

Dorset

4-5 July - A sunny couple of days in Dorset around Swanage. The highlight being a trip across to Brownsea Island, with the usual very close views of nesting Terns, their chicks being now near to fledging. A pair of Mediterranean Gulls also seen, sadly the main diet of the adults (and therefore young) seems to be Common Tern chicks. Waders on the scrape included a single Avocet and a flock of Black-tailed Godwits. Durlston Head had a surprisingly large group of Auks offshore, 40-50 Guillemots with a solitary Razorbill.

Otmoor summer......

3 July - An afternoon visit to Otmoor, and a soporific Turtle Dove was calling in the afternoon sun. A scan from the bridleway then revealed a hunting female (juvenile?) Marsh Harrier. Redshank, Little Egret and 6 Red Kites also seen. Hidden Reed and Sedge Warblers also singing from the vegetation, together with Whitethroats, provided a backdrop. A Common Tern was over the lagoon. 13 Red Kites counted altogether this afternoon.