Patch summary for 2025

 

Despite being reportedly the sunniest year on record, 2025 could not match our patch species count of the previous twelve months. The unusual sighting of a group of 5 Pintails, overhead in late December brought the final total to 99, four short of the figure for 2024. As usual, all patch lists along with bar charts and other statistics can be found at our ebird ‘hotspot’ via this link and there is a map of the patch on the first post on this site.

The drier weather and lower water levels at Setley Pond may have contributed to a general lack of wildfowl over recent months, with no Greylag Geese, Wigeon or Shoveler, although we did manage to add Teal to the patch list back in January. This year’s only other Patch ‘lifer’, a Common Sandpiper in May, was also a new bird for Setley, and brings our overall total to 120 species. Additional pond highlights for 2025 included an obliging group of up to five Kingfishers in late summer and a regular Little Egret during the autumn.




The most striking absentees this year were some of our regular warbler species, namely Garden, Sedge and Reed, while Lesser Whitethroats, also failed to make any appearances in spring or autumn. March, however, produced our earliest record of Willow Warbler, which continued to sing in multiple locations throughout the patch during the summer months.. Whitethroats, were also in good voice in the scrubland areas, with plenty of Blackcaps evident in the woodland, including a single wintering male in December. Chiffchaffs remained our commonest summer warbler and continued to be seen and heard well into the autumn, with our final record of the year being on 23rd October.

The warm weather helped to produce a good crop of hawthorn berries which were enjoyed by large numbers of winter thrushes at the end of the year; a congregation of several thousand Redwing in Hincheslea Woods were joined by sizeable Fieldfare flocks during November and December. However, for the second consecutive year we failed to record any Ring Ouzels on the patch, despite several reports from elsewhere in the New Forest; hopefully 2026 will see a return of this, previously regular autumn visitor.

Most of the heathland species had a good breeding year, with increasing numbers of Dartford Warbler and Stonechat territories noted in their usual locations. A singing Woodlark at Setley in Spring gave us some hope of a return for this species although the lack of further records during summer suggested that they bred elsewhere again. Drumming Snipe were a frequent sighting over Hincheslea Bog and Widden Bottom and Lapwing also managed to rear young at several locations; our Curlew pair did not return and are probably now gone for good after nest predation in the past 2 years.


Red Kite sightings continued to be focused on the first half of the year, although 2025 produced our latest ever record in mid-July. Buzzards and Kestrels remained our most frequent birds of prey, with fewer Peregrine and Goshawk sightings than in previous years. A male Hen Harrier was seen on a couple of occasions in January and we also had two autumn records each of Merlin and Hobby.

In the coming weeks, I will be producing a more detailed summary of our local birding activity, having now completed 5 years of recording on our patch. Some interesting trends are emerging, highlighting some of the changes that we may see over the coming decade.  

 

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