isle of wight day 1-arriving on the island

we woke up near Southampton and were quickly on our way as we headed off to catch our ferry to the isle of wight. The day was bright, but slightly breezy but we managed to get our ferry and were quickly on our way to the isle of wight.
The ferry journey was not a patch on Arran last year, in terms of birdlife, in that there was only a cormorant to speak off, as well as a hand full of common terns flying past as we entered the harbour at Cowes. I would speculate that the terns were from the colony at Newtown estuary.
The drive down to our campsite seemed all too familiar even though it has been 4 years. This holiday was going to be different though. Since the isle is quite compact my dad had suggested that I use the buses to access many different wildlife sites, when my family were off doing other things. I had drawn up a map off all the sites with species that could be found there , and i had used an online records system to track down populations of insects that would otherwise not be well broad casted.
There was some degree off consistency with species that could be found at sites. Marbled white would be a new species for me, but there were a lots of sites that appeared to have this species. I even said to my dad-this holiday would be a disappointment were i not to see a marbled white.
It was ironic then that as we were driving round the campsite I spotted what appeared to fit the bill for marbled white fluttering around the campsite. I pleaded to get out of the car and was eventually allowed, and so i was able to track down the butterfly in question, hiding behind a hedge , and this proved that it was indeed a marbled white. so the first species that I saw after landing was ironically a new species for me, and a good record too, despite the fact that it spent most of its time at the top of a hedge!

-Marbled white
When I found my family, fully set up on our new pitch, My dad pointed out a buzzard circling nearby, I tried to get a few photos but sadly they didn't come out that well.

-Buzzard
my family went off to go and discuss the terms of our stay (?), and as i waited I spotted a very small blue appearance butterfly. It was very small indeed, even smaller than a common blue, but I didn't get a view of the inside of the wings but my suspicion is either a small common blue or a brown argus.

-Blue sp. Whilst i was watching that blue butterfly I spotted another butterfly flutter past me, another marbled white it appeared on the face of it. I was right again, but this one was not as shy as the other as this one landed on a caravan nearby-luckily its occupants were out!

-Marbled White

The marbled white left the caravan and flew over a hedge and into what appeared to be the children's play area. I was surprised to see that behind the play area was an area of rough grassland with mown grass paths, I think it was an intended nature reserve. There were quite a few butterflys there including common blue, meadow brown and large white as well as 6-spot burnet moth. At the bottom of the nature reserve there was a compost bin where there were a lot of thistles and a lot of gatekeepers to go with them. there was also a red admiral, which added a bit more colour. In bird terms there was a sedge warbler and a family of willow warblers.

-Gatekeeper

-common blue

when I got back to the caravan I was astounded to find a gigantic robber fly in the orning. It was about an inch long and kept continuing buzzing and attacking the plastic, until my dad let it out.

-Giant robber fly
after lunch we decided to go to Ventnor because it was a nice, sunny afternoon. I like Ventnor because of the common wall lizards that live in abundance amongst the town and surrounding beaches. When we arrived I had a look up one of the scrubby cliffs, and on the scrubby path I found a cricket of some description, which is always nice as we don't have an excess of crickets in Yorkshire, where as down here they are everywhere and many more grasshoppers!

-Cricket sp.

Back on the base, near the car I found my first lizard of the day, sunbathing underneath some twigs. it was easy to approach but hard to photograph because of the twig encroachments. so I tried to get some close-ups of its head, to try and highlights of the colours, which seemed more vivid than they were last time.

-common wall Lizard

we decided to move further up towards the end that we normally go to, so that my family could get out their canoes, I on the other hand opted to go for a walk along the beach to try and get some photos of more lizards. so here are the photos I managed-once again very vivid in colour and highlighting just how bold these lizards were in terms of how skittish normal reptiles are!

-Common Wall Lizard I decided to try and get to a nature reserve high above Ventor called "rew down" which has the only colony of Adonis blue butterflys on the island. I didn't have my map, and i didn't really know where to go, so I bluffed my way, taking turns not knowing where they would end up. Whilst reading one road sign I spotted this lizard-adapting to the human environment.

-Common Wall Lizard

After that I managed a few more turns then decided to just head back down and catch up with my parents. When I got to my map it appeared that my speculative road direction choices were well speculated, and had I carried on about 500m then I would have reached where I needed to be, but such is life

It was nice to see the lizards again, my first real views since the last time I was here and also had my first new species in the form of marbled white.