June 15th
With birding very quiet at Reculver we had an early start this morning and spent the day in the New Forest visiting Latchmore Brook, Avon Heath and Ober Water. Birds we saw included 2 Red Kites, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls, 3 Woodlarks, 3 Stonechats, 1 nesting female Mandarin Duck, 1 male Nightjar disturbed from its daytime roost, 4 Kingfishers, 6 Common Redstarts, 1 Hobby, 2 Tree Pipits, 2 Nuthatches and 1 Grey Wagtail.
Our main aim, however, was to look for dragonflies and damselflies and although it was very blustery we managed to identify twelve species: Small Red Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Southern Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Keeled Skimmer, Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Emperor Dragonfly and Black-tailed Skimmer.
We also found 4 Silver-studded Blue butterflies.

The New Forest