Have added a file to the photo album showing a map of the best birding areas I have found so far round the village: http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/albums/petermk/Nthbad02.jpg
Key:
A: Emer Bog: SSSI. See Tom Jordan's website for a full description: http://pic6.piczo.com/HampshireBirder/?g=30445017
B: Baddesley Common: Hampshire Wildlife Trust site adjoining the Bog. A mixture of Common/grazing grassland, woodland and scrub.
C: Checkpoint Charlie: Western edge of Baddesley Common. Public Footpath follows a narrow corridor of barbed wire fencing, with Grazing land either side. Good potential for migrants hopefully.
D: Mountbatten Park: Fairly dense woodland
E: Calvelease Copse: Woodland, and marshy grazing areas bordering a golf course. Popular with local dog walkers! Woodcock here in Winter at least.
F: Hoe Lane East: Large field best described as "waste ground" Small paddock in North West corner good for Stonechats. Again popular with dog walkers so likely to get high level of disturbance.
G: Hoe Lane: Pheasant cover and grazed fields to north of lane viewable from road, has been good for Fieldfare (e.g. 356 in late feb), Starling, Redwing, and Reed Buntings in winter 2006/07
H: Hoe Lane West: Stubbly field, and Pheasant Cover. Good for Red-Legged Partridge, small flock of Chaffinches.
I: Ashfield Pheasant Cover: a decent sized flock of Linnets (c.80) wintered here.
J: Luxborough Lane: viewable (just) from A27 layby. Not the prettiest, or safest place to birdwatch from, and layby likely to take a few years off the life expectancy of your car's suspension. Heavily flooded field good for Lapwings in winter. Have also seen Shelduck here.
K: Great Covert: to be explored further.
L: Bucket Corner: to be explored further.
Not a bad collection as I've only been here a month!
Shame there are no decent water bodies in the area. There are a couple of medium sized lakes just north of the map, and the River Test runs just west of the map.
Saturday Morning ventured out to Baddesley Common: No sign of the Redpoll flock this morning, but a few more Fieldfare than on previous visits. Strangest sight was a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming on a high voltage power pylon. He was certainly getting a decent volume out of it!
Saturday evening the first signs of bat activity on the bat detector with a Soprano Pipistrelle making a very brief appearance on the recording. Would like a longer duration signal to confirm this though!
Best Wishes,
Peter
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