A NEW Forest resident with a passion for wildlife is helping the National Trust with his observations on birds and other wildlife.

Martin Bennett, who retired to Ibsley three years ago, 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.

While out and about, he also explains to people walking their dogs, or riding horses what they can see if they keep their eyes open.

Doug England, project officer for the National Trust in the New Forest, said: “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 the wildlife and locals can live together happily.”

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.”

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.

He said: “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.

“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, who 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, an expert wildlife photographer, has built up a library of images of birds and wildlife at Ibsley, providing a selection for this year’s National Trust New Forest calendar. “What I have here is priceless,” he said.

“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.”