New Forest Biodiversity News - February 2025

This report aims to summarise some of the notable wildlife sightings and conservation news in the New Forest National Park in February 2025. To contribute to future editions, please contact the New Forest Biodiversity Forum Chair (russ@wildnewforest.org.uk).

Notable wildlife sightings

February was a rather unremarkable month for weather in the New Forest, with temperature and rainfall about average overall, and sunshine a little below average (contributing to the general feeling that this winter has been rather gloomy). However, this masked a cooler first half of the month and milder second half, as the wind veered from east to west.

Scarlet (or Ruby) Elf Cup on 23 Feb 2025 (photo: Marion Nesbitt)

Aside from the now regular sightings of White-tailed Eagles and Spoonbills, there were few ornithological highlights during February. At least three White-tailed Eagles were seen at various coastal and inland sites, and up to 20 Spoonbills continued to spend the winter at the coast between Calshot and Hurst. The coastal strip also produced records of several notable winter visitors including Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, four Slavonian Grebes, Velvet Scoter, Spotted Redshank, Little Gull, Short-eared Owl, and Black Redstart. A nice colour-ring observation relates to a Curlew ringed as a chick in The Netherlands on 15 June 2023 that was photographed on the Beaulieu River on 02 Feb. Inland, a sighting of two Ring-necked Parakeets at Acres Down on 17 Feb was notable (and unwelcome!).

Colour-ringed Curlew on 02 Feb 2025, ringed as a chick in The Netherlands on 15 June 2023 (photo: Peter Gloyns)

In other news, the first Adders were reported on 19 Feb, while the heroic efforts of Ringwood and Poulner Toad Patrol saw 199 Common Toads saved between 26 Jan and 23 Feb, as well as ten Common Frogs and 106 Palmate/Smooth newts. These numbers compare to 23 Common Toads and 12 Palmate/Smooth Newts lost as road casualties, indicating that an order of magnitude more amphibians were saved than were lost - a great result!

Adders on 27 Feb 2025 (photo: John Foreman)

Wildlife and conservation news

The Environment Agency have purchased nearly 400 acres of farmland around Keyhaven (see here and here), which follows the recent announcement that a wider land area here has been purchased as part of the Kingwell (Aubrey) Limited Natural Capital Scheme. This latest acquisition includes parts of the Avon Water and land around Aubrey and Vidle Van Farms, and is a key part of the Environment Agency’s Habitat Compensation Restoration Programme in the Hampshire/Sussex region. Although the land will remain in agricultural use for at least the next five years, it will gradually transition to an extensive area of managed habitat creation through a combination of habitat compensation work and the Natural Capital Scheme.

A new study (see here and here) by Bournemouth University and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has revealed that Foxes in the New Forest are consuming significant quantities of human food waste, contributing to an artificially high population that is negatively impacting some species of breeding wader. The team analysed the stomach contents of 447 Foxes that were removed by local wildlife managers, and found that, on average, 14% of their diet was made of anthropogenic food sources. Scavenging of discarded food waste in bin bags was thought to be a significant contributor, but there is hope that an imminent transition to wheelie bins in the New Forest will help reduce this source.

A member of the Wild New Forest Facebook community posted the graph below showing the latest New Forest livestock numbers, based on the register of commoning ‘marking fees’ paid to the Verderers. Although not a direct measure of the actual numbers of livestock on the open forest, it nevertheless shows the ‘boom and bust’ of cattle numbers in the last decade in response to changing agri-environment payments, and the fact the pony numbers have shown a more gradual increase from 4500 to 5500.

Graph showing proxy for New Forest livestock numbers, based on the Verderers marking register (provided by Tony Hockley)

Finally, many thanks as always to all those who contributed their observations and images to the various online portals that provide source material for these reports, particularly Going Birding, Hampshire Fungus Recording Group, and the Wild New Forest and Hantsmoths Facebook sites.