Martin helps Trust preserve priceless heritage
A passion for wildlife has led to a pioneering partnership between ornithologist Martin Bennett and the National Trust in the New Forest.

Martin, who confesses to a lifelong delight in observing birds, has become the Trust’s eyes and ears on Ibsley Common, often spotting patterns of behaviour that help the countryside team make decisions about managing the landscape.
And, because of the hours he spends observing the often uncommon species that flourish on this National Trust land, he is able to explain to people walking their dogs, or riding horses what they can see if they keep their eyes open and what they should do to avoid disturbing the roosting or nesting birds.
“Martin is doing what has never been done before, and that is talking to people who’ve lived here all their lives and explaining the needs of birds such as woodlarks, nightjars and Dartford warblers, so that the wildlife and locals can live together happily,” said Doug England, project officer for the National Trust in the New Forest.
Martin retired to Ibsley three years ago – and thought he had found heaven. “When I looked up that valley, I knew this was the place,” he said. And when, just before he moved in to his new home, he saw a rare bird of prey, a hen harrier, zooming up the valley, right on his doorstep, he dropped everything and raced to the common to watch it, thus starting his near-daily observations that are proving so valuable to the Trust’s countryside team.

Factfile

The National Trust is the second largest landowner in the New Forest, with 2400 hectares on five different sites on the western and eastern edges.

The properties within the established New Forest boundary are Hale Purlieu, Bramshaw Commons, Rockford, Ibsley and Hightown Commons. The recently acquired Foxbury Plantation, Copythorne, is just outside this boundary, but within the National Park. All five areas support the New Forest’s historic method of farming, known as ‘commoning’ and all are being managed to regenerate habitat in a sustainable environment.

The Forest owes its shape, wildlife and flora to commoning where the landscape is sculpted by grazing animals. Management, whether by the Forestry Commission who care for the 20,000 hectares of Crown lands, or by the National Trust, can be complicated by the need to balance recreational use (horse riding, cycling, dog-walking and rambling) with the rights of the commoners and protection of the environment.
 
 
 
 
 
The Trust is managing the land so that alien vegetation is removed, allowing natural regeneration. But sometimes, because of Martin’s observations, this doesn’t happen.

“I spent hours watching cuckoos – four or five adults who were clearly doing a recce in April. They are becoming uncommon and we don’t know why. They were concealed in a couple of Scots pines, just waiting. The female cuckoo lays her egg in another bird’s nest – generally a meadow pipit – and they were waiting for the right time,” he said. “If those pines had been felled, they would have had no hiding place. I like to think this might have saved the cuckoos in this area.”
Martin, whom the Trust regards as a volunteer warden, watched as the cuckoo was finally rewarded, when the pipit briefly left her nest. The cuckoo just had time to tip out an incumbent egg, lay her own and disappear before the pipit returned, unknowingly to hatch the cuckoo chick.

Martin has seen rare smooth snakes on Trust land. He knows that the magnificent hen harrier likes to roost in heather, also a favourite hiding place for adders, another increasingly uncommon species. As the woodlark, nightjar, lapwing and curlew build their nests on the ground and the Dartford warbler, pipits and stonechats start their families, he is able to warn walkers, especially those with dogs, not to disturb the birds.
“There are many responsible dog owners,” he said “Often those whose animals do cause problems don’t know what fantastic wildlife we have here. When I explain, they understand.

Martin, an expert wildlife photographer, has built up a library of images of the birds and other wildlife at Ibsley, providing a selection for this year’s National Trust New Forest calendar.
“What have here is priceless,” he says. “I have the time to observe and pass on the information to Doug and his team. If you are going to promote conservation you have to know as much as possible. For me this is a passion.”