{"id":1982514,"date":"2018-05-28T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?guid=eef000505716e3d7812640c4cbd0b2ad"},"modified":"2019-12-23T01:30:52","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T12:30:52","slug":"martin-down-and-pennington-marsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/martin-down-and-pennington-marsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Down and Pennington Marsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last couple of weeks have been manic at work with some very early starts for breeding bird surveys, late nights reviewing documents and getting the company ready for the new and extremely tedious General Data Protection Regulations which come into force later in May. However, I have managed to get out a little to protect my sanity.<\/p>\n

On the morning of 16th May I visited Marin Down on the north Hampshire and Wiltshire border to complete my Nightingale survey as organised by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, alas, there were no Nightingale.<\/p>\n

Martin Down has experienced a catastrophic fall in population from 24 singing males in 1980 to none now, there cannot have been a change in the extent of scrub, this is a National Nature Reserve and there has probably been an increase rather than a reduction in scrub cover.<\/p>\n

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There were high numbers of Great-crested Grebe for a May visit – Pennington Marsh, Hampshire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So surely this local and the national decline is linked to changes in the wintering grounds or something happening along the migration routes rather than localised habitat loss\/change in the UK. Still, there were lots of Corn Bunting (at least 15 birds recorded) and the first Turtle Dove that I have seen in the UK for many years with at least six ‘purring’ birds.<\/p>\n

Here, also were an amazing density of Skylark and it was difficult to estimate the number of birds but my best guess was 30 birds in all. It was a little windy for butterflies and the only species I recorded was a single Green Hairstreak, my first of the year.<\/p>\n

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Corn Bunting – Martin Down, Hampshire<\/p>\n

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Corn Bunting – Martin Down, Hampshire<\/p>\n