Saw some babies in the forest today.

Photos courtesy of my old man, anytime I lay hands on a camera it's blur city, blurrier than Song 2 even.

Edit: Forgot a pic!

A beautiful morning in the New Forest 02/02/2025

The sun shone so brightly, a day of exception in a largely grey winter and I felt invigorated to be immersed the tranquillity of nature as the day awoke. I was captivated by many sights that morning; like the gorse's flowers so brightly yellow as though suns themselves, a herd of Fallow Deers a treat to see hunkered in the heath and dainty Firecrest and Treecreeper flickering through the trees and bushes. Hawfinches atop a tree enriched the morning further, mammoth finches. The always striking and soothing Stock Dove was another key bird encountered as were a monarch of the woods a Goshawk soaring and magical moments with a mesmerising Merlin.

25/11/2023-Walk from Whitefield Moor in the New Forest

Pictures taken in this set: 1 and 10. The brilliant moon which it was special to see rise out in the open landscape here and Jupiter which is visible beside it tonight which was fascinating to see a mysterious shape in the sky before we knew what it was. 2. Gorse which looked stunning in the sun in flower there is a fair bit of it around currently. 3. One of two Carrion Crows it was great to see well at the car park. 4, 5 and 9. Wonderful views on the walk, it was brilliant to take in lovely views of the pines, other trees including birch, high gorse bushes, heathland, bog, moonlit towards the end puddles and reedbed caressed by the exquisite November sun today on a smashing walk. 6. A jolly Robin immersed in a hawthorn bush where the crow was above and a Song Thrush was in too. 7. The standout bird species today, a dashing Fieldfare I enjoyed getting a top view of and we saw loads of these today flying over and it was amazing to hear their gushing calls from the trees beside us at one point in the walk. An exceptional experience taking in these phenomenal birds. 8. An eyecatching Redwing in the sun a key bird to see today as well in a thrush fest with possibly a Mistle Thrush seen too.

2nd May 2021: Dawn chorus day, other garden and home moments, Bentley Wood, Swallows and yellow fields 

This morning I set my alarm at a couple of early morning intervals, just before 5am and just after 6am to spend some time listening for the dawn chorus on International Dawn Chorus Day. I was thrilled to listen to the immensely beautiful, enriching and so special to hear fluent wall of sound from Blackbird, Robin, Song Thrush etc. facing into the chilled morning air as I briefly brought back some woolly clothing to really lean into the air out the window to hear the sounds of the birdsong coming from the direction of Lakeside where we had enjoyed a dawn chorus before. I loved doing a little recording of this amazing sound on my phone as I did with “Colin” the Cuckoo at Thursley Common recently when he called so loudly and well. By the second wake up after sunrise, the closer sound of a House Sparrow that had arrived in the garden, as well as a persistent Jackdaw calling could be heard. And the familiar loud call of a Collared Dove sounded as I drifted off back to sleep. A stunning and wonderful natural experience one of my most connected moments to nature this year. It really was amazing just observing the world when the human life is sleeping and everything is quiet and hear the birds take over. I had been meaning to go out or listen out the window for a dawn chorus again for ages and I clocked onto this event last year but did a literal dawn one when it got light and heard the tail end of it but this year it was great to do it in the darkness and hear so much.

I enjoyed seeing a Magpie and Starlings in the garden later on in the morning when properly up which I tweeted pictures of on Dans_Pictures tonight as I did with a lot of the species and scenes I mention in this post. 

Today we went to Bentley Wood shown in the first picture I took today in this photoset as we hoped to maybe see some butterflies on a bright patch of another possibly showery day. Mostly something we come here every May to try and see the Pearl-bordered Fritillary coming to this butterfly haven to try and see them one of the rituals of our butterfly year. We walked through the usual extensive and well vegetated field area shown by the fifth picture in this photoset from the car park back towards the road to try and see them, the field adorned by the colour of flowers including primroses, wood anemone and as usual bluebells in great numbers as well as greater stitchwort and spurge too which seemed to be everywhere today and I had seen here before but didn’t know what they were before I had the PlantNet app they are nice glowing green interestingly shaped flowers. There were lesser celandine and other great flowers around on the whole walk today too. 

After walking down the fence line quite a way, where we had seen them before early in the season and a kind gentleman we saw who we actually saw last Saturday at Martin Down too and spoke too said he’d seen a few Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and not seen one the sun just looked like it might go behind a cloud. It did feel as commented by someone else we saw later on quite warm in this corner and great Orange Tip and Green-veined White views proved it paid to be out and here as butterflies and other insects were in the air between showers. Then all of a sudden it all changed in a split second when I looked to the right downwards and in a flash saw the orange glow of a Pearl-bordered Fritillary. It settled a few times and flew on too and we spent a glorious few minutes taking it in and following it, enjoying this butterfly one of our most precious. It was another smashing butterfly to see lately my 15th butterfly of the year. It felt joyful to see and efficient in terms of getting it seen seeing one in a showery day and as we walked on sure enough a shower did come. It was nice to see another butterfly for the first time in my year this weekend as my season builds well.

I actually saw my first Pearl-bordered Fritillary of the year in 2020 a year ago today. It was interesting the slight difference in the months before last year and this year as leading up to a year ago today there was a long dry, sunny and very warm spell. We’ve had our fair share of that this year too of course, but also changeable and cooler weather too. The last three months had a way of building out of overcast, cold or wet weather and growing into really sunny and warm patches towards the end. But some things in nature are so stubbornly and beautifully consistent so it was great to see the same butterfly for the first time this year on this day. That day a year ago it was like so many of the butterfly species I saw in 2020 my earliest ever sighting of one in a year so I’ve now tied that which is nice. 

As we walked on after the shower towards the big ponds I liked taking in dramatic sky scenes and seeing my first tadpoles of the year on one of the ponds which I took the second picture in this photoset of. We noticed a delicious sea of bluebells in the woods which we walked closer to so that we could take them in I took the third picture in this photoset among others of them, an absolutely gorgeous and stunning classic spring time scene to take in as the sun reappeared another precious immersive natural experience today. I also took the fourth picture in this photoset of the path as we walked on. 

As we walked back down the main path we had two more wonderful moments with wildlife. Firstly an extensive and beautiful herd of Fallow Deers bounded across the path, it was spectacular and sensational to watch and just take in making our their beautiful markings. I wasn’t quite quick enough for a photo but it was just amazing to see them and I saw one on the way in too. Then we got a special view of my first ever oil beetle a great creature to see and spend a few minutes watching it scuttle along. It’s really satisfying after learning a few of them last year to get my beetle season up and running this year recently my first new one of the year. 

We ended the walk in the field and liked seeing Chiffchaff, Wren, Great Tit, hear Blackbird and Song Thrush once more today and other little birds in a great patch of time seeing some. On the way home it was an eventful one for seeing things, first two splendid Swallows sat famously on a wire at West Dean right on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border which we saw for a great prolonged period getting to make out the birds so well and some top photo opportunities which I loved I manged the sixth picture in this photoset of one. We also saw another special yellow oilseed rape field shown in the seventh picture I took today in this photoset which it was good to take in and photograph. On the way I saw a few fields getting more and more solid yellow as we went along. I took the final three pictures in this photoset when home of a new beautiful dahlia in the garden one of my favourite flowers in the garden last year, Collared Dove out the back I loved seeing as I tweeted a picture of two of them and two Woodpigeons on the roof visible from my room as the sun was going down reminding me of humans at a conference or something and a sky scene in a memorable evening for looking at the sky out my window as the sun came down and things got red too. A perfect, varied and fulfilling day in nature. I hope you’ve all had a good Sunday.