Naturetrek trip to Acres Down Spotted Flycatchers Everywhere!

Wednesday 25th August 2021

Acres Down, Hampshire

Naturetrek 

Travelled down to Hampshire again, this time to one of my favourite sites - Acres Down.  I was one of 7 people who signed up for Naturetreks "Raptors of the New Forest" day.  The weather was overcast at the start (09.00) but got better as the day went on and by the afternoon it got very warm.  Conditions were decent for raptor watching - dry and sunny with a good brisk wind.

• As it turned out things didn't go too well with the raptors.  We had no sightings of Honey Buzzards and only a 10 second view of a Goshawk which some people missed, myself included.  There were a couple of Sparrowhawks, one which was very distant and a distant Kestrel.  The only close views were of Common Buzzards.
• By way of compensation we saw a glut of Spotted Flycatchers with a final total of 20+ - bigger than all my previous sightings put together!  They were mainly in family groups of 5+, hence the large count.
• Another memorable sighting was of a group of 5 Mistle Thrush nestling in the top of a nearby bush in the valley just  below of us.
• We saw a couple of Ravens, singles of Hawfinch, Redstart, Nuthatch and Crossbill, 2 juvenile Woodlarks and 2 Wheatears, lots of Meadow Pipits, Stonechats, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Marsh Tits.

Byron, our guide, worked ever so hard today with only modest success - the raptors just weren't showing.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself - the flycatchers did it for me.  As I had seen 2 Honey Buzzards a few weeks ago in the Ashdown Forest their "no show" did not bother me as much as the rest of the group.