HAMPTON RIDGE

A birding walk among New Forest ponies

The former royal hunting forest of Hampshire, now the New Forest National Park, is a site of great historical importance and natural splendour, despite being set in one of the most densely populated parts of the country. In this busy modern world, sections of the park, such as Hampton Ridge, still retain a unique atmosphere redolent of medieval England with its wooded enclosures and ancient grazing rights made famous by the New Forest pony. The rolling countryside and sandy soils support a rich variety of wildlife and habitats from coniferous and deciduous woodland to isolated ponds and streams and what is the largest tract of heathland in southern England, complete with scattered birch scrub and solitary pine trees, an ideal setting for the likes of Hobby, Tree Pipit and Nightjar. The topography of the forest is such that there are many opportunities to scan across valleys and over woodland canopy to search for scarce soaring raptors like Honey Buzzard and Goshawk. Declining summer migrants such as Wood Warbler, Whinchat, Redstart and Tree Pipit are still present in small numbers, and we can only hope they don’t follow the fate of the now extinct Red-backed Shrike that used to haunt these heathlands when I first visited back in the 1960s. On a positive note, however, Montagu’s Harrier have bred, in recent years. This long walk covers most of the National Park’s birding habitats and is also good for a variety of other heathland wildlife including a wide range of butterflies and plants. Keep an eye out for Adders and Sand Lizards, which you may see basking among the heather, and dragonflies over the ponds.