#fordingbridge

26/06/21-Deadman Hill: Part 1 of 2-The landscapes 

Joseph Bound Horsey (1829-1910)

My Great Grandfather. A leap of nearly 200 years in four generations!

He was born, lived and died in Fordingbridge, Hants. Worked as a wheelwright and fathered numerous children, most of whom survived infancy. A drinker who died in the workhouse despite having family living nearby; perhaps he was a difficult man to have living with the others, perhaps they had no room or could not afford to keep him.

I like the similarity of pose in the two pictures. The one on the right, copied from a daguerrotype glass plate shows a confident young man. He looks out at you with all the assurance of a future lying ahead of him. The other, taken in a studio in Fordingbridge, shows a man toward the end of his life, perhaps less sure of himself, with possible regrets. 

My grandfather in WW1

Alfred Charles Foster (1882-1951) fled Fordingbridge, the town where he was born, in the early 1900s and met up with a married scotswoman, going with her to Canada in 1913. He signed up in 1915 to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France from 1916 to 1918, taking part in the subsequent victory march through Germany. IHe never returned to wife and son but went back to the town of his birth, marrying my grandmother and my father was born in 1921 when both parents were over 40.

24/03/18-Harbridge and Blashford Lakes 

We headed to Blashford this Saturday but firstly called into the nearby wet fields beside the River Avon at Harbridge good for geese and swans especially and after a little bit of scanning I found the Bewick’s Swan in the record shot in the first picture in this photoset of the ones I took today. It was a year tick for me and I was thrilled to see this as its definitely one of my greatest birds this year. That’s the sixth consecutive year list of mine a Bewick’s Swan has appeared on but I only really see them in a couple of places in the country and some of those years could easily have been ones when I didn’t see them so its a lovely bird I never take for granted. 

What’s more my Mum and her husband saw these in abundance at Slimbridge for his birthday in February when I stayed behind and looked after the dogs, so it was me who needed this bird for my year list and it was in every sense my year tick. I scouted it finding sightings on the HantsBirdNews Twitter account this morning so suggested we come to Blashford and call into Harbridge and I spotted it when there. This was also such a special sighting because with Mute Swans seen as early as New Year’s Day in 2018 by me and Whooper Swans a star of our January Scotland trip, I’ve seen all three wild British swans this year and I have only achieved that once before in 2013.

Upon arriving at Blashford I firstly went into the Tern hide where I quickly got another year tick when I saw a Wheatear on one of the extensive shingle banks. This took my bird year list to 136 and I was fascinated to confirm in my mind that the Wheatear was my 136th bird of 2017 as well. I don’t remember anything like that happening before, obviously for example the Black-headed Gull has been my first bird of a year more than once and other common species that you always see early in years may have had the same numerical position coming onto my year list as they did in other years but I certainly never remember this happening well into a year list. 

Furthermore I saw my first Wheatear of 2017 on 15th April at Durlson, so that clearly indicates how far ahead I am of 2017 and any other year list of mine when considering how many birds I’d seen on a given date. The Wheatear is always a crucial spring year tick for me, in a quartet of spring birds with Skylark, Yellowhammer and Linnet is where I often put it. Its great I’ve seen the Wheatear as it shows spring is coming through but I have also now seen all four of those birds this year already which is a good position to be in knowing I won’t have to worry about these four birds I perhaps ought to see easily every year.

From the Tern hide another highlight was seeing a Buzzard fly really close above. As you may have picked up when I produce more than four pictures in a day I often when its little Tumblr posts and sometimes when doing a full blog like this select only four pictures to post on Tumblr the highlights as it were. But today every picture I took for me had a talking point about it so I included all five. The second picture in this photoset is a Chaffinch in the woods and the talking point is as I walked between the Tern and Goosander hide I heard it make a really entertaining and unfamiliar call which was interesting.

The third picture in this photoset is a landscape overlooking what you can see from the Goosander hide, having gone from the Tern to Goosander which I hadn’t done this sequence for years I appreciated how high up the Goosander is compared to the Tern. From this hide I actually saw Goosander which I hadn’t before. The biggest entertainment from my time in there was from the two Lesser Black Backed Gulls shown in the fourth picture in this photoset. As Canada Geese flew down and swam towards them they made a right racket, their calls going on ages and ages. 

At the Woodland hide my next and final stop today via a visitor centre toilet stop Brambling and Siskin were once again highlights, its perhaps the last time until next winter I’ll see them here and I’m having such a great year for Siskins in 2018 as I’ve mentioned previously. I took the fifth picture in this photoset of a Reed Bunting and I enjoyed seeing two, I got them as a year tick in Moray but had to take the guide’s word for it a bit and only saw them briefly fly. But I saw two Reed Buntings today and when this one came to the feeder it was probably the closest view I’d ever got of one. I don’t even have to check to know this is my best ever Reed Bunting picture. It fascinates me that I have been taking pictures for nine years but there are still stones un-turned in terms of common birds I have never photographed or never photographed well so its always a thrill when I do get that moment for the first time with a species. At the Woodland Hide also I saw more Grey Squirrels than I ever had there at once with four of them. 

Happy coincidences

I was in Ringwood recently, sheltering from a heavy downpour in a charity shop and found an old book of photographs of Fordingbridge and district. Later, while sipping a hot chocolate in a cafe, I glanced through and found three pictures that related to my family.

My great grandmother started a greengrocery and sweet shop in the early part of the 20th century in the town. In 1930 my father was photographed twice. Firstly as part of the school; he is front row, third from the left. His cousin, Joyce Foster, is third right seated and second row back. The teacher is Miss Sumerbee who, strangely, was the head teacher at Lymington Junior School where my father later taught.

The final picture is of the church choir that my father sang in. He is the boy to the left at the front. 

A walk on Martin Down, Hampshire