Brownsea red squirrel

It takes a lot to get me up early on a Saturday morning, but today was the last day of the year for public access to Brownsea Island. Brownsea is famous for its red squirrels and autumn is the best time to see them because they're busy stocking up their larders for winter. So Fred made sandwiches and a flask of tea while I packed some biscuits (very important), and we caught the train to Poole. A few hours and a ferry journey later, we were on the island. At first we were concerned that it would be thronged with people, but I think the majority of folk stayed near the castle because we soon left them behind. We wandered up small pathways with the golden sun coming down through the autumn leaves, dragonflies and ladybirds whirring around us. At one point a red admiral displayed his colours, sunbathing on a fern. At a house called 'the Villa' we saw our first red squirrel. He was feeding from a variety of feeders (cheating, I know). A child behind us cried out about something and the wee fella stood up, alert, so I blipped him.

We continued walking around the island. There are many Scots pines and it felt like we were walking around the Aviemore area rather than the south of England - quite odd. Then there was the smell of the sea and we came out onto the beach at the south shore, which is covered with pottery remnants. There used to be a pottery factory as there is a lot of clay there.

Further around the island there were views of the Needles on the Isle of Wight and we walked across the site of the first scout camp in 1907. There were, of course, a few more red squirrel sightings, but they were swift and didn't stop for the camera. AS for the birds, there were peacocks, black-tailed godwits, spoonbills, egrets, shelduck, mallards, moorhen, cormorants, gulls of a few varieties and probably many more waders that I haven't identified.

I'll put a few pics on Flickr - here's a link.