March wildlife highlights
PUBLISHED ON: 5 MARCH 2025Spring officially arrives with the equinox on the 20th March, when daytime and nighttime are of equal length. New life is visible everywhere in the New Forest, as a long winter comes to an end and spring begins to flourish.
Reptiles and bats are starting to emerge from hibernation, common toads are spawning, and young rabbits can be seen above ground for the first time. On a warm March day you may even catch a lizard or snake basking in the sunshine like the laidback adder pictured below.
The first of the summer migrant birds fly in towards the end of the month. You might hear the distinctive and repetitive ‘chiff-chaff-chiff-chaff’ of the returning chiffchaff, a small woodland warbler, or if you are lucky the distinctive fast drumming of a lesser spotted woodpecker. The New Forest is home to all three of our resident woodpeckers, the green, great spotted and lesser spotted. Many people are familiar with the green and greater spotted woodpeckers and may even get them in their gardens (the green feeding on ants in the lawn, or the great spotted on a bird feeder).
Lesser spotted woodpeckers are sadly becoming increasingly rare across the UK but the New Forest remains a stronghold for them. Tricky to see because they are only about the size of a sparrow and very secretive by nature. March is a good time to try and see one by listening out for their territorial drumming which is quieter but tends to last longer than that of the great spotted woodpecker.
This month the lapwing and curlew return from their coastal wintering sites to breed. They nest on the ground and are very vulnerable to disturbance, so it is important that you (and your dog) stay on the main paths to help protect these rare birds.
In the woodlands, leaf buds are enlarging on the trees, and on a warm day early butterflies such as brimstone and peacock are on the wing.
Look down at the ground and you might see dor beetles -pictured below: shiny, black, rotund and quite large, they eat all types of dung — rabbit droppings, fox scats, cow pats and horse manure — and they are also an important food source for predators such as foxes, badgers and even birds of prey.
As spring wild flowers start to bloom look out for hungry early pollinators like bees and hoverflies. Any bumblebees you see this month will be Queens because the drones and workers will all have died last autumn. Hungry after hibernation once she has built up her energy reserves, she will seek a suitable location (often an old mouse burrow, a bird box or gap under a shed) to start a new colony, lay her eggs and set about provisioning it with nectar and pollen to feed the larvae when they hatch. Dandelions are a fantastic source of food for bumblebees and many other early flying insects so do help by leaving some to flower in your garden.
