This report aims to summarise some of the notable wildlife sightings and conservation news in the New Forest National Park in November 2024. To contribute to future editions, please contact the New Forest Biodiversity Forum Chair (russ@wildnewforest.co.uk).
Notable wildlife sightings
Met Office data for November reveal it was a month of two halves, with the first half being dry, mild, and rather gloomy, and the second half being colder and unsettled with two named storms affecting the region; this meant that monthly metrics such as temperature, rainfall, and sunshine hours were about average overall.
The stormy weather associated with Storm Bert stirred things up at the coast, with the southwest corner of the New Forest producing some notable seabirds including Cory’s Shearwater, Little Auk, Little Gull, Velvet Scoter, Purple Sandpiper, and up to 50 Kittiwakes in the Hurst/Milford area on 23-25 Nov. A popular Long-tailed Duck arrived at Keyhaven Marsh on 15 Nov, and up to 24 Avocets, 15 Spoonbills, six Bearded Tits, five Goosanders, five Spotted Redshanks, and single Short-eared Owl, Ring Ouzel, and Water Pipit were also of note in the Lymington-Hurst area. Great White Egrets were seen at Hatchet Pond, Kings Hat, and Lepe (where a Black Redstart and Velvet Scoter were also seen).
This colour-ringed Spoonbill (NC6U) was ringed in The Netherlands in summer 2022 and has spent much of the last three winters in the Lymington-Hurst area, returning to The Netherlands each summer (photo: Steve Laycock).
Another Yellow-browed Warbler was the inland avian highlight, this one seen in sallows at Mill Lawn Brook on 03 Nov (although as this is <5km from the 23 Oct sighting at Longslade Bottom, the possibility of just one long-staying bird being involved can’t be ruled out). A nice account of autumn 2024 bird sightings on Chris Roseveare’s local patch between Brockenhurst and Sway can be found here.
Few notable invertebrates were recorded, but a late Painted Lady butterfly was seen at the New Forest coast on 26 Nov. This occurred at the same time as an influx of rare migrant moths into southern England, although they frustratingly missed the New Forest, with Levant Blackneck, Silver-striped Hawkmoth, and Golden Twin-spot all recorded at nearby sites. Two southern insect species that have recently established themselves in the New Forest are Variable Cockroach and the distinctive tachinid fly Ectophasia crassipennis - the former was found in a moth trap at Woodlands on 03 Nov and the latter was found parasitised by the ‘Zombie Fly Fungus’ Entomophthora muscae at a damp heathland site on 11 Nov.
Ectophasia crassipennis parasitised by Zombie Fly Fungus (photo: Russell Wynn).
Fungi highlights during November included the first Hampshire and New Forest record of Woolly Rosette Cotylidia pannosa (only the 6th UK record this century) and the first New Forest record of Helvella atra (with the nationally rare Scaly Spark Flammulaster muricatus found at the same location).
Woolly Rosette (photo: Holly Fitzgerald)
Helvella atra (photo: Marcus Ward)
An HFRG survey at Millyford Bridge produced the second Hampshire and first New Forest record of Mycena dasypus (confirmed with DNA), while another HFRG survey at a private site in the southern New Forest produced some nice colour in the form of Pink Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis and Violet Coral Clavaria zollingeri, both known from just a couple of sites in the New Forest, as well as Tricholoma batschii at its only known New Forest location.
Violet Coral at one of two New Forest sites where it was found this autumn (photo: Holly Fitzgerald)
In addition, DNA analysis of cryptic specimens recorded during HFRG surveys earlier in the autumn has revealed that an aldercap at Mark Ash Wood may be the first British record of Alnicola umbrina and a fibrecap recorded at Franchises Wood may be the first British record of Inocybe dodonbae. A further three HFRG survey specimens that are potential first New Forest records have also recently been identified through DNA analysis, these being Amanita huijsmanii, Inocybe gaiana, and Rosewood Brittlegill Russula melitodes.
Potential Amanita huijsmanii (photo: Russell Wynn)
Wildlife and conservation news
Details of the Keyhaven Natural Capital Scheme were released in November here, which will see 605 acres of farmland near Keyhaven allocated to a stacked Biodiversity Net Gain and Nitrate Mitigation scheme, to offset development elsewhere in the region. The scheme has been developed by the landowner (Kingwell) in partnership with New Forest District Council, New Forest National Park Authority, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT), and the land will be managed by HIWWT to deliver the required uplift in biodiversity and water quality. The location provides an opportunity to connect to the existing Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve to the east, and to provide new coastal grazing marsh to compensate for anticipated managed retreat along this coastline in response to ongoing sea-level rise.
The latest official Defra figures relating to wild bird populations in the UK make for predictably grim reading here, with ongoing overall declines and particularly alarming short-term declines of ~10% in both farmland and woodland birds, and also wintering waterbirds (see plots below).
More encouraging is this Natural England blog here that outlines habitat creation work at North Solent NNR to support breeding seabirds, with installation of a tern raft in April leading to the first breeding of Common Terns there for about 20 years. A series of shingle islands have now been installed as part of the Solent Seascape Project, and the hope is that these will also attract breeding Little Terns in the future as well as providing habitat for wintering and passage waders.
Further positive news comes with the release of the 2022 report of the UK Rare Breeding Birds Panel here, which indicated that five new colonists or reintroduced species reached record levels, these being Mediterranean Gull, Spoonbill, Great White Egret, Little Egret, and White-tailed Eagle. The report also outlined how Goshawk, Marsh Harrier, and Osprey have recovered from historical persecution to reach record numbers in the modern era, and that the recent run of mild winters has seen Dartford Warbler and Woodlark reach their highest totals for a couple of decades. These results will be familiar to local ornithologists who, with a bit of luck, can now see all these species in a single day in the New Forest! Finally, the first UK breeding of Glossy Ibis, and potential colonisation of other species with a southern origin such as Black-winged Stilt, Bee-eater, Iberian Chiffcahff, and Baillon’s Crake, provide some pointers as to how our future avifauna might develop in response to ongoing climate change.
The 2023 Hampshire Moth Report has been published online here, and contains details of over 110,000 records for nearly 1400 species. The first Hampshire and New Forest records of Fir Carpet and Small Dotted Footman were notable, and a couple of rarely encountered micro-moths were also recorded as new to the New Forest, these being Bog Rush-moth Glyphipterix schoenicolella (based on larval feeding signs on Black Bog-rush) and Wood-rush Miner Elachista regificella (larval mines in Great Wood-rush). An adventive species, Fig-leaf Skeletoniser Choreutis nemorana, was found near Lymington and is the first for Hampshire and the New Forest. Large Yellow Underwing was the most commonly recorded moth, and it is noticeable that two non-native micro-moths, Light Brown Apple Moth and Box-tree Moth both featured in the top 10 (although as reported previously, the latter species appears to have suffered a dramatic fall in numbers this year).
A project led by the Species Recovery Trust that aims to reintroduce the New Forest Cicada hit the headlines here when a 12-year old Slovenian girl offered to help secure donor specimens when they emerge next spring - the larval offspring of these adult cicadas will then be released in the New Forest, although their long lifecycle means it will be several years before any adults emerge.
The New Forest Reptile Centre near Lyndhurst hosts a variety of native reptiles and amphibians, and it made the news here when its open-air enclosures suffered an apparent incursion by Brown Rats, although it’s not clear whether any of the captive animals were directly affected.
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, the Fungi Recording Database of Britain and Ireland, and the Wild New Forest and Hantsmoths Facebook sites.
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