33rd: Copythorne Common – Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

This visit was a bit of a last-minute decision, we had a free day and had planned to go tramping across Hampshire somewhere, so decided to tie in a walk with a visit to Copythorne Common. It’s on the edge of the New Forest, but if you weren’t looking at a map, you’d be 100% certain you were in the forest as the atmosphere, habitat and species we saw were all exactly the same.

We were up early and arrived just after 7am, early enough to still catch the morning atmosphere that moves me every time. I swear there’s something about early mornings that has a deep primordial connection with our souls. It just moves me in a way no other time of day seems to be able to. Any worries dissipated very quickly, and I get a feeling of calm contentment, it’s great!

When we arrived at the reserve, we were hearing birds everywhere but couldn’t see anything at all. All we could see was the ethereal beauty of the early morning moon and a stunning spiders web in the dawn light.

It took about 20 minutes to spot our first bird, a spotted fly catcher and after that, suddenly they were everywhere.

Carol said she felt like Snow White surrounded by all the birds, there were swallows, gold finches, stonechats, wrens (although we only heard those) a greater-spotted woodpecker and a buzzard. I have to come clean here, it was seen from quite a way off and I was convinced it was a much rarer bird of prey as I thought it was much smaller than a buzzard, but I must have been completely forgotten the way perspective works!