Saturday 22 February 2020
10 of us from the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group ventured down to Hampshire for our annual visit to Acres Down and Blashford Lakes. We were rewarded with a fine birding experience, despite the awful weather.
It would have been easy to call the trip off, with a forecast of strong winds and more rain in the form of showers. However we were determined to get out and about after being virtually grounded for weeks by the recent persistent poor weather conditions.
Acres Down
We targeted goshawk and woodlark at this venue.
When we arrived at 09.30 the weather was at its worst with rain and a strong breeze - hardly conducive to looking for birds on the exposed slopes. A treecreeper seen in the car park and a very loud, singing song thrush provided some inspiration to get started despite the odds.
Up on the slopes we initially had very little to shout about, with a dunnock, a few meadow pipits and several goldfinch the pick of our sightings.
A passing local patch birder was sceptical about our chances of seeing goshawks and suggested we descend into the valley below where he had seen crossbills and hawfinch. We duly took the advice but after a while where we saw a treecreeper but little else we decided to return to the top again. By now the weather was improving, coinciding with a change in our luck.
- Near the top we heard a superb woodlark singing away almost directly above us in the sky.
- Shortly afterwards we saw a magnificent female goshawk flying quite close to us. Soon afterwards the male showed up too and we were able to enjoy their display routine for several minutes. Not long after we sighted a third.
After lunch at the car park we moved on to our second venue at Blashford Lakes
Game on!
Blashford Lakes
Blashford was clearly looking the worse for wear after the floods over the past few weeks and wellies were the order of the day here. We parked in the very wet north car park near the Tern Hide, spending time in the hide before walking over the road to visit the other hides.
- We soon spotted the goosanders, way over the far side of Ibsley Water - a female and 2 drakes.
- There were scores of pintail present as well as a superb drake goldeneye, lots of pochard and the usual suspects.
At the very least we had seen all our target species!
Over the road the flooded paths were being reopened and we were able to visit Ivy South Hide, Woodland Hide and Ivy North Hide.
- We saw fewer birds than normal from Woodland Hide but we did see nuthatch, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, dunnock, greenfinch, coal tit, blue tit and great tit but there were no woodpeckers around, no siskins and no redpolls.
- On Ivy Lake we added gadwall and mute swan to our day list.
Pleasant and tranquil - and the sun was shining!
A much needed outing and one we all enjoyed.
