Fritham and Eyeworth Pond 23rd August 2016

Fritham and Eyeworth Pond 23rd August 2016

We had a fairly long drive this day as we were taking the scenic route from Montacute to Lyndhurst where we were spending the night at The Crown Hotel. We drove the route via Shatesbury,  Cranborne Chase, Sixpenny Handley and Fordinbridge which was lovely but we missed the Skylarks at the top of Cranorne Chase that we had seen – and heard so gloriously – previously. This time the field had been harvested and it was pretty bare. I suppose that the Skylarks had already bred and disappeared already.

We managed to get one single birding stop in and this was at Eyeworth Pond at Fritham where we had previously seen a good number of Mandarin Ducks who used to breed there. I had seen mention of one or two relatively recently but in the couple of hours we were there I disn’t see a single one. Very disappointing ! We took a walk hoping to get all the around the pond. We tried walking to the right as you look at the pond but it wasn’t too long before we got utterly lost and we headed back to where we had come from eventually – while we still could.

I think that the last time we were here we walked in a leftward direction which got us further round but, as I recall, it wasn’t that easy that time either – and boggy !

Bird Sightings : Fritham and Eyeworth Pond