New Forest Biodiversity News - May 2025

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

Notable wildlife sightings

Met Office data indicate it was the second warmest May on record based on mean temperature, but the warmest ever based on mean maximum daytime temperature (which excludes the lower temperatures during cool clear nights). Southern England received less than half the average May rainfall, and it was the third sunniest May on record. Overall, the spring period (March to May) has been the warmest and sunniest on record in England, and the driest for over 50 years.

Avian highlights included a Black Stork drifting west over Acres Down on 04 May (potentially the same as that reported on 19 April) and a first-summer male Red footed Falcon at Pig Bush on 06 May, while both Cattle and Great White Egret were seen in the Avon Valley. Up to four Spoonbills lingered in the Lymington-Hurst area, with other notable sightings there in the first half of May including a pair of Garganey, two Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stint, Wood Sandpiper, Short-eared Owl, and Turtle Dove, while an unseasonal Long-tailed Duck was on Normandy Lagoon at the end of the month. Sea-watching was largely unexceptional in the settled conditions, but a total of 18 Pomarine Skuas were seen from coastal sites. Unfortunately, there was no repeat of the Roseate Terns breeding on Normandy Lagoon, with just a single bird observed on several dates (often chased away by Common Terns). Chris Roseveare’s monthly overview of bird sightings in the Sway and Brockenhurst area during May is available here.

Red-footed Falcon at Pig Bush on 06 May 2025 (photo: Chris Rose) 

Little Tern at the New Forest coast on 28 May 2025 (photo: Steve Laycock)

The moth highlight was the discovery of a population of Flame Wainscot in a coastal reedbed, with five caught over three nights in the second half of May; these are the first records for the New Forest and the first evidence for an established population in Hampshire (although it is present in Dorset). Another moth highlight was a specimen of the day-flying Coppice Beauty Olethreutes arcuella that was photographed in the New Forest on 19 May.

Flame Wainscot at the New Forest coast in May 2025 (photo: Bob Chapman)

 Coppice Beauty in the New Forest on 19 May 2025 (photo: Marion Nesbitt)

It was a good month for sightings of warmth-loving insects, with multiple reports of nationally rare beetles such as Six-spotted Longhorn Beetle, the soldier beetle Cerapheles terminatus, and the various bright red Ampedus click beetles including A. cinnabarinus, A. elongatulus, A. quercicola, and A. sanguinolentus. Two nationally rare and recent colonists in the form of Eurasian Scentless Plant Pug Brachycarenus tigrinus and White-shouldered Shieldbug Dryoderes umbraculatus were recorded in a garden in Woodlands, with White-clouded Longhorn Beetle and Hawk’s-beard Mining Bee Andrena fulvago also found there. The Orange-sided Comb-horn cranefly Ctenophora pectinicornis,  the Anthracine Hoverfly Psilota anthracina, and the Small-headed Hoverfly Pocota personata were found in ancient woodland by surveyors conducting Green Forest Hoverfly fieldwork, while a specimen of the extremely rare bug Notochilus limbatus at Turf Hill appears to be the first UK record for over 50 years. Finally, Scarce Chaser dragonflies were widely reported around the fringes of the New Forest and are clearly spreading into damp meadow habitats.

White-shouldered Shieldbug in a Woodlands garden on 04 May 2025 (photo: Russell Wynn) 

Small-headed Hoverfly in the New Forest on 11 May 2025 (photo: Russell Wynn)

The rare bug Notochilus limbatus at Turf Hill on 23 May 2025 (photo: Jonty Denton)

The dry weather meant that fungi sightings were few and far between, but a specimen of Plantpot Dapperling Leucocoprinus birnbaumii found indoors in a pot plant on 31 May may be the first New Forest record.

 Plantpot Dapperling in the New Forest on 31 May 2025 (photo: Chris Welch)

Wildlife and conservation news

Southern Water have responded to public outrage about the level of combined sewer overflow discharges into New Forest rivers and are now investing in upgrading infrastructure at waste-water treatment works, as well as funding underpinning research into ecological impacts of discharges and assessing other solutions to reduce surface run-off from local towns and villages. An update on some of this work is available here.

A new peat map has been published for England here, which highlights the importance of the New Forest in a central southern England context. However, close scrutiny by experienced local ecologists has revealed various inaccuracies, which will hopefully be rectified in future versions.

Screengrab of the online England Peat Map showing the regional importance of the the New Forest

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have recently released the results of the 2024 Breeding Bird Survey here. Some of the key findings are highly relevant to the New Forest, such as the recent rapid increases of Egyptian Goose and Marsh Harrier at wetland sites, the long-term sustained increases in breeding Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, and Stonechat, the near extinction of Little Owl, Nightingale, Wood Warbler, and Yellowhammer as breeding species in the New Forest, and potential colonisation of the New Forest by Red Kite and Ring-necked Parakeet.

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.