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HAMPSHIRE FEBRUARY

HAYLING ISLAND

In Chichester Harbour there was a Black Brant (3^rd to 20^th) (with another in West Lane fields), Barnacle Goose (10^th), Red-necked Grebe (1^st & 2^nd), two Black-necked Grebes (until 10^th), 3^rd-winter Caspian Gull (14^th), and three Sandwich Terns throughout.  Offshore were Fulmar (15^th & 21^st), Shag (23^rd), Guillemot (6^th), up to 15 Eider (14^th & 20^th), seven Common Scoter and four Slavonian Grebes, but only the odd Great Northern Diver and Red-throated Diver (although 11 divers flew west and five east on 15^th).  Present throughout were up to six Firecrests, three Woodcock, two Jack Snipe and two Black Redstart, whilst two Ravens flew east (14^th).

TITCHFIELD HAVEN / HILL HEAD

Sightings included Pale-bellied Brent Goose (9^th),  Bittern (throughout), Marsh Harrier (several dates), Merlin (6^th), Peregrine (14^th & 24^th), up to four Avocet, up to 220 Golden Plover, Knot (3^rd & 20^th), Woodcock (6^th), Green Sandpiper (21^st), Greenshank (18^th), up to five Mediterranean Gulls, two Rock Pipit, Cetti's Warbler, Dartford Warbler (19^th), Bearded Tit and Lesser Redpoll.  Offshore were Scaup (from 17^th), Black-throated Diver (6^th & 7^th), Great Northern Diver (throughout), Slavonian Grebe (1^st, 3^rd & 6^th), Black-necked Grebe (13^th & 20^th), up to 14 Eider, up to three Common Scoter, three Velvet Scoter and Yellow-legged Gull (13^th).

LYMINGTON TO HURST

Wildfowl sightings included three Eurasian White-fronted Geese (7^th to 10^th), nine Tundra Bean Geese (from 7^th), Pale-bellied Brent (throughout), Egyptian Goose (throughout), two Scaup (throughout), up to 16 Goldeneye, up to 16 Common Scoter and up to four Eider.  All three divers were seen through the month, a Red-necked Grebe was off Hurst Castle (25^th) and
up to eight Slavonian Grebes (throughout).  Raptors included Marsh Harrier, Peregrine and
Merlin.  Waders included up to five Avocet , up to 300 Golden Plover, Jack Snipe, up to 46 Bar-tailed Godwit, up to five Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, up to 166 Knot and two Purple Sandpiper (at nearby Barton-on-Sea).  c150 Mediterranean Gulls were in the area (from 14^th) as were  two Yellow-legged Gulls. Other birds seen were at least two littoralis Rock Pipit, up to four Water Pipit, Black Redstart (6^th & 26^th), Cetti's Warbler, Dartford Warbler, up to four Firecrest and Bearded Tit.
 

AVON VALLEY / BLASHFORD LAKES

On Ibsley Water Meadows up to15 Bewick’s Swans were seen,  also Great White Egret and a single White-fronted Goose (24th).  On Ibsley Water were 11 White-fronted Geese ( 7^th to 9^th), Common Scoter (16th), up to 34 Goldeneye, two Shelduck (25^th & 26^th), up to 48 Goosander and a “redhead” Smew (25th) (with a different bird on Rockford Lake all month).  At Ellingham Pound were Red-crested Pochard (9^th to 12^th), 2,900 Black-headed Gulls into roost (9^th), 50 Common Gulls (9^th), 800 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (9^th) and Mediterranean Gulls were seen on three dates from 19^th.  Also seen were up to three Green Sandpiper, up to 500 Black-tailed Godwit, Woodcock (6^th), Common Sandpiper (28^th), male Hen Harrier (12^th to 14^th), Merlin (3^rd), Bittern (4^th), Cetti’s Warbler, and, from the Woodland Hide, an increase from three Brambling (4^th) to 80 (28^th).  In the Avon Valley were maxima of 150 Pintail (7^th), 800 Wigeon (4^th) and six Ruff (7^th).

ELSEWHERE

Green-winged Teal was at Budds Farm (until 19^th), Scaup at Fawley/Calshot  and Velvet Scoter at Langstone Harbour (5^th to 13^th).  Bitterns were seen at Brownwich Pond, Hook and Testwood Lakes.  Marsh Harriers were at several coastal sites and, away from the New Forest, Hen Harriers were at Bransbury Common (10^th), Woolmer (17^th) and Cheesefoot Head (20^th).  Merlins were at Testwood Lakes (10^th), Farlington (18^th & 21^st) and Cheesefoot Head (27^th).  Up to 16 Purple Sandpipers remained at Southsea Castle.  Jack Snipe were found at  Lower Test Marshes,  Lakeside (20^th) and The Vyne (27^th).  The Ring-billed Gull remained at Gosport.  Up to three Short-eared Owl were at Bransbury Common (8^th & 9^th) and up to 11 Water Pipits were at Lower Test Marshes.  There were several Black Redstarts and Firecrests and up to 65 Corn Bunting at Cheesefoot Head.  The Great Grey Shrike remained at Holmsley.

Richard Carpenter with Jackie Hull, Andy Johnson and Steve Piggott.

News Updated 05/03/2010

WALKS

2010

Sunday 14 March - Bursledon, Mallards Moor and Hamble
Saturday 20th March - West Hayling to include Hayling Oyster Beds
Sunday 21st March - Broadmarsh, Budds Farm and South Moors

Sunday 4th April - Exton to Beacon Hill
Saturday 17th April - East Meon, Hockham Valley & Duncoombe
Sunday 18th April - Migrant Birds at Farlington Marshes
Saturday 24th April - Portland and the Bill.
Sunday 25 April - Winterbourne Downs

Sunday 2nd May - Whiteley Pastures and Botley Wood
Wednesday 5th May - Selborne, In the Footsteps of Gilbert White
Saturday 8th May - Martin Down and Vernditch Chase
Sunday 9 May - Learn about the Nestbox Recording Scheme
Sunday 9th May - Migrant/Summer Birds at Titchfield Haven
Saturday 15th May - Durley including Greenwood & Brown Heath
Sunday 16th May - New Forest - Beaulieu Road Station area
Saturday 22nd May - Worth Matravers

Update on the ‘Grey/Roosevelt Walk’ Centenary Commemoration

Over the last year HOS has been liaising with other organisations to establish a commemorative event or events to mark the centenary of The Grey/Roosevelt Walk. Together with the RSPB New Forest Group we are now proposing a programme of visits to both the Itchen valley and New Forest, for members and others as described below. Further aims are to mark the centenary through a set of initiatives that establish a more enduring memorial in conservation and public awareness terms of these two important and unique areas of our county.

Our intention is to organise an event on the centenary date of June 9th 2010, to which a very small number of participants will be invited to sponsor and represent county, national and international interests that either have been influenced by, or linked to, the original historic event described below. The main purpose of this article is to announce a much broader commemoration of guided walks to be organised over the following weekend June 12th/13th to which all members of county and national conservation bodies will be invited. Also as part of the Hampshire County Council ‘BirdFest’ year 2010, a small guide booklet will be published to enable anyone to explore the original Grey/Roosevelt Walk route, as far as that is possible, from public footpaths.

There follows a review of our current knowledge of the Grey/Roosevelt Walk and consequential events.  In 1909 the US President Theodore Roosevelt, nearing the end of his second term in office, made a request of the British Foreign Office as part of his planned European tour to arrange for some expert on bird song to accompany him on a walk through the British countryside, the aim being to identify the bird song and compare it with his own experiences of North American birds. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary (1905-1916), himself an amateur naturalist, thought that he would make an appropriate companion. The pair travelled to the head of the Itchen valley on June 9th 1910 and started out from Tichborne around 1300 hrs, rambling along seven miles of the Itchen to Kings Worthy. From there they were driven to Stoney Cross, New Forest and proceeded to walk a similar distance to Brockenhurst, arriving at around 2100 hrs. Roosevelt departed for the U.S.A. the next morning, Grey having produced for him a list of the 40 species they had seen - 20 of which he marked as having also been heard.

Roosevelt considered this walk the highlight of his European tour and the mutual respect and friendship engendered is manifest in their numerous later writings and actions. An important conservation development in North America, often cited as an outcome of this walk, was the Migratory Bird Treaty which the British Government, on behalf of the Dominion of Canada, co-signed with the USA in 1916; it was then passed as an Act of Congress (MBTA) in 1918. The MBTA has maintained the protection of migratory birds in North America ever since. Roosevelt during his term of office was responsible for the creation of the first National Parks on either continent.

In May 1921 Lord Grey (ennobled as Viscount Grey of Fallodon in 1916) re-enacted the walk with the eminent American ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, Director of the Bird Section of the American Museum of Natural History, New York (AMNH). Further in May 1932 Chapman and Grey selected a New Forest locality near Lyndhurst as the inspiration for Chapman to create a habitat group for display at AMNH of 41 specimens of New Forest species described as “Birds of the Roosevelt Walk” with a painted background from sketches by George Lodge, depicting a further ten species. The habitat group was later also dedicated to Lord Grey after his death in 1933.

Lord Grey, as Chancellor of Oxford University met, was influenced by and gave his backing to the young ornithologist E.M. “Max” Nicholson. In 1933 The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) was established at Oxford with Nicholson its principal founder and first secretary; it was also the year of Grey’s death. Nicholson then worked with B. Tucker and W.B. Alexander to establish by 1937 a research institute at Oxford University, fittingly named The Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (EGI).

Max Nicholson went on to become Director-General of the Nature Conservancy Council and whilst there masterminded the commemorative event to mark the 50th anniversary of the Grey/Roosevelt walk - although he may well have been alerted to the anniversary by the Director of AMNH. The commemorative event, celebrated on June 10th 1960, retraced only the walk through the New Forest from Stoney Cross to Brockenhurst. Max Nicholson jointly hosted the event with the Head of the Forestry Commission for the New Forest (W.A. Cadman). The day was well attended by notable British conservationists including: David Lack, Director of EGI; Sir Julian Huxley; James Fisher; Peter Scott and leading county ornithologists Edwin Cohen and Colin Tubbs. There was a generous U.S. representation, as its six participants were in Britain en-route to the Warsaw meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the President of the Canadian Audubon Society also attended. Nicholson had recently negotiated with the Forestry Commission six specially protected areas of the New Forest for conservation measures. No doubt there would have been much discussion of the planned creation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which was founded on September 1961 by its three principals as underlined above.

As part of National Heritage Year in 1984 on June 9th the Hampshire Ornithological Society (HOS) commemorated the Grey/Roosevelt Walk with a six-mile excursion along the Itchen valley from Tichborne to Easton – a mile short of Kings Worthy.

Thus the Hampshire conservation community hold both the original walk and its 50th anniversary in great esteem and wish to see the centenary suitably marked through bird-listing walking events involving national and international attendance and specific commemorative and conservation measures. During 2008/09 HOS and the local New Forest RSPB Group management have made several national organisations aware of the centenary of Grey/Roosevelt Walk and initially suggested the event should be organised at national level, particularly as it had an international interest. Although several organisations expressed an interest, most felt that they should support a HOS organised event. Hence the framework below has been approved by the HOS management committee, but is dependent on several additional partnering organisations participating with appropriate support if the full scope of the proposals is to be realised.

A part-replica walk is planned by HOS along the Itchen valley and through the New Forest on Wednesday June 9th 2010. Invitations to both sponsor and attend this event are being sent to organisations that have roles in conservation decision making, management, study and awareness – particularly within the historical context outlined above. It is hoped that sufficient interest will be engendered in America for some representation from there too.

A more extensive weekend event is planned on June 12th/13th for members of the local/national conservation organisations. On Saturday June 12th there will be a morning guided walk along the Itchen. Assembly will be at Avington Park between 0700-0900 hrs and a minibus will be used at half-hour intervals to take people to the start and later collect from the end of the walk. The walk will start at Borough Farm (east of Itchen Stoke) and proceed along the Itchen to Easton/Kings Worthy (around 6 miles).. Ideally, to fully replicate the original walk, we will want to use private riverside footpaths: permission has already been sought and agreed for some important sections. On Sunday June 13th a morning walk from Stoney Cross to Brockenhurst is planned (7 miles). Participants will meet at Brockenhurst and be taken to Stoney Cross by minibus. On each date there will be a party leader and assistant guiding a maximum of 14 in each party; prior arrangements will be made to cater for those that would not wish to walk the full distance.  There are inns near the walk finish points and participants are encouraged to backpack a picnic. An organised buffet at the Forest Park Hotel is under consideration. As a deal of planning is required for this weekend event, it is essential that numbers are firmed up very soon and a Reply Slip is included at the end of this article. There will be a total charge of £15/individual to cover the costs of transport on both days.

As part of the Hampshire County Council ‘BirdFest’ year 2010, a small guide booklet will be published by HOS to enable individuals - at a time of their choosing - to replicate the walk along the original Grey/Roosevelt route but confined to public access and permissive paths in the Itchen valley. This has been made possible through an OPAL grant. Funding is being sought to produce a similar guide for the New Forest Grey/Roosevelt Walk. There are several further proposals under active consideration for more permanent memoriam: these will be described as appropriate in future Newsletters.

Click here for application form.

Events Updated 05/03/2010