And don't forget, the pigs that are released to eat the acorns have to have rings in their noses to stop them digging up and 'damaging' the grassland for the grazing livestock. Commoners face fines and the loss of the right to let pigs out if they don't comply. Just another way in which the Forest is 'shaped' by man, but not in a way that's helpful to biodiversity or proper woodland ecology.
The grazed areas are ideal for Autumn Ladies Tresses!
One thing I have discovered since living near the New Forest, is just how many species have an English stronghold there. Honey Buzzard, Goshawk, Hobby, wintering Great Grey Shrike and Hen Harrier, Wood Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Woodlark, Firecrest, Nightjar, Hawfinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Smooth Snake, Heath Grasshopper, Southern Damselfly, Barbastelle, and Bechstein's Bat, Bog Orchid, Lesser Butterfly Orchid, along with plenty of other flowers and fungi.
breeding Curlew and Snipe.
Plus it copes with hundreds of dog walkers, cycle races, livestock, tourists.
That's pretty good for somewhere that isn't solely a nature reserve. In fact it is probably better than the majority of "Nature reserves" in England, especially if you include the New Forest Borough "coast", with Keyhaven, Pennington, Lepe and Calshot.
I believe the balance is pretty good. But it's taken a few years to work out where best to avoid the masses of picnickers, cyclists, dog walkers, pigs!, and don't get me started on the Doggers.. WTF is that about!
I know a few birders look at the New Forest and think, Urrgh, but I don't get why. Maybe they have been unlucky and visited the more extreme grazing areas, or maybe something I don't understand / don't see.
I've seen a lot worse in terms of artificial / manicured habitats for sure!
