New Forest Excursion

Well, 1st time a day off has coincided with decent weather for a while, so Mrs PB and myself decided on a mini jaunt to the New Forest which, despite having lived near to for about 40 years, I've never actually mooched about in. We aimed for earlyish to be at Bolderwood with a decent chance to see some deer. We were there by nine and after walking maybe 50 yards from the car park we spotted some Fallow Deer .....

All five flavours live in the forest, but none would be as cute as Bambi here

I thought eh-up, it's gonna be a good day!

We wandered on, and soon spotted this thrush (pic lightened slightly as was in shade of the trees)

It was a day of several butterflies, the first of which was a Meadow Brown

We saw several juvenile Robins, this one being the most photogenic (plus he followed us for about 100 yards along the path, so I felt he deserved inclusion for persistence!

There were the usual woodland birds flitting about, mostly too shaded or too quick for pictures but this Coal (I think?) Tit posed quite nicely for a moment (I went for coal tit as it has white bar on the wings and a splash of white on the back of the head, and the other candidates aren't just black and white)

A few more butterflies now, Skipper (don't know which)

Ringlet

And another Meadow Brown

A couple of Grey Wagtail were frolicking in a tiny stream (frolicking may be harsh, they were probably feeding!)

Not sure if this is Common or Small Blue, or another altogether

No idea what this bird is, feeding in the shade, at the base of an oak (I think) alongside a grey wagtail. The picture is lightened a lot to discern any colours, as even with the naked eye it was too dark to make any colours out. I'm thinking most likely a Chaffie?

A couple of shots of another Skipper

A (possible) Gatekeeper

When I saw these next two "in the field" I thought it was a Chaffie feeding it's youngster (bearing in mind it was in shade and flapping and flying!), but now looking at the pics, I'm totally confused (nothing new there I hear you say)….

After that, we'd completed the loop back to the car park so we trundled home, and I snapped a couple in the garden...Including our first sighting of a butterfly landing in the garden Joy

A gold-eyed-red-head-stripy fly

Hope you enjoyed

Stay safe all