WILDLIFE SPECTACLES

HERITAGE TERRAIN

The unique landscape here is a reminder of what much of Britain would once have looked like. It is still a working common, in effect a huge unfenced communal farm, the largest area in the lowlands that escaped the depredations of the Inclosure Acts.

New Forest ponies are ubiquitous, as well as the commoners’ cattle, and pigs are let loose in autumn for pannage, hoovering up the year’s acorns. These rights of common are closely guarded, presided over by the

In July, where the heather is at its tallest, you may come upon a colony of beautiful silver-studded blue butterflies (far right). These are rare in the UK but abundant in the forest, and you may see hundreds.

In early summer, go to where the woods meet the heath at sunset, and listen for the strange mechanical churring of the nightjar; you may see one gracefully swooping in the half-light in its hunt for moths. The woodlark (right), a rare heathland bird, is small and unassuming. Then it starts to sing, a song

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Around 3,000 cattle graze in the New Forest in the summer months; in autumn, pigs are released into the forests to perform the vital task of eating fallen acorns, beechmast and other nuts (green acorns are poisonous to ponies and cattle); discover ancient trees in Berry Wood in the west of the park held by some to be the most beautiful of all.

There are five species of deer in the forest, but you’re most likely to see roe deer in the woods and fallows on open ground. A small number of fallow deer are pure white, always a special sight. To see avocets, head to marshes at Keyhaven and Pennington.

Verderer’s Court in Lyndhurst which adjudicates on forest law, and overseen by a team of agisters who help manage the commoners’ stock, supervising the annual round-up known as the drift.

And yet for a working landscape, it is incredibly kind to the natural world. It is one of the richest habitats in Britain – if not in Europe – for flowering plants, fungi, lichens, insects, reptiles and birds (see box below). There are plants and animals here that have been almost entirely lost elsewhere. Indeed, there are some species found only here.

We are so accustomed to thinking of human use of the land as being inherently destructive of nature that it is somehow deeply reassuring to see that, actually, it can be possible for the two to exist in harmony. But it is a fine balance, and we need to recognise as visitors that this is a shared space and does not exist solely for our pleasure. We need to treat the place responsibly and not do anything that could jeopardise that fragile balance.

WOODS AND TREES

While there are Forestry Commission plantations, most of the woods here are pasture woodland, freely grazed by ponies, cattle and deer. These open woodlands of mostly mature oak and beech with an understorey of holly are utterly distinctive. They contain by far the largest concentration of ancient trees in western Europe and, being largely unmanaged, are filled with fallen trees and deadwood, an important factor in the richness of this habitat. Tidiness is not kind to wildlife. And continuity is a factor too; these woods have been like this since at least when the forest was founded 1,000 years ago, and likely for much longer still. That incredibly rich chain of connections between a multitude of species has never been broken.

A favourite site of mine is Berry Wood, near Burley Street, perhaps because this was the first place I camped as a child, back when wild camping was still permitted. Also nearby is Soarley Beeches, a copse of ancient beech trees isolated on the heath.

ROLLING HEATH

The first-time visitor may be surprised to find, however, that only about half of the New Forest is actually wooded. Most of the rest is lowland heath, great expanses of heather dotted with gorse brakes, a rare and declining habitat both nationally and