Today my family were headed off towards freshwater, so i decided to tag along and visit A
fton marshes while they were
canoeing. The website said that there were lots of dragonflies at A
fton marsh as well as water voles. I know which out of those two I
believe more!
The weather was decent, but as I walked through the first half of the reserve (the path
doesn't actually go through the reserve in this bit) I
didn't see anything, except a couple of gatekeepers and a red admiral, so I was pretty
disappointed.
However in the other half of the reserve the path went through the reserve a lot more which meant it went close to the pool where I suspected most of the dragonflies would be. I was
disappointed that as soon as I entered I found myself enclosed by woodland, this was not on the map.
A jay alighted on an overhanging branch which cheered me up. There was a river going alongside the path, but there were no plants in it due to the shade presented by the trees growing either side.
-Jay
I was bitterly
disappointed as I finished the circuit around the reserve, as there were only a few spots where the sun actually broke through the trees. I
couldn't even see the pool that was
supposed to be there, but I decided to take a another walk around, to see if i could lift the
disappointment.
Luckily there was a lift for the
disappointment as i casually walked around for the second time I heard a rustling by my feet. I stepped back to find about 50cm away was a water vole on the waters edge.
I
was surprised to say the least, normally water vole records
relate to one
occurrence used to draw tourists in, but it appeared that this site did actually have them, well it did and they were quite bold it appeared.
I tried to get a few photos but sadly there was a lot of vegetation in the way. It went about 20 seconds later, obviously not trusting this still feature that kept making ominous clicking noises (the camera)
-water voleA bit further on, the place that looked best for dragonflies, an open area with a very small water body i found my first butterfly for the day. My first one this year, but sadly not a new tick. The last time I was on the isle of wight the only butterfly I remember seeing was a holly blue, so it would have been a shame to not have seen one on my return to the island.
As it happened that was not going to be the case as I managed to find one in that area, feeding peacefully as i got some photos for the records.
Holly blues are possibly the easiest to I.D because they have blue outsides as well as insides, and they have limited outside patterning, which is why they are some of my favourite butterflies.
-Holly Blue
Just a bit further on I spotted something else worth watching, an adorable family of baby wrens. I guessed they had just fledged because they still had very obvious gapes and were still being attended to by an adult. They were very cute, as all baby birds are
-Baby Wrens
It was still a bit of a
disappointment but the many wonderful things I had seen made me feel better, there were other things around too including unusual bees and lots of speckled woods.
-Unusual Bee
-Speckled wood
I left Afton marshes feeling good, especially about the water vole and headed back to the car. We were at a loss as to what to do for the afternoon, so we decided to go to Carisbrook priory. There wasn't much there but in the garden i spotted a green woodpecker whizz past and also there was a chalk-hill blue in a patch of long grass.
After tea we decided to go to Ventnor to try and track down some crickets. Last time we were here we kept hearing loud crickets and then one night we found one, an absolute monster, a great green bush cricket, but back then I had no camera and so was unable to get a photo. This time i intended to get it right and get a photo.
The problem with these crickets is that they sound close, but are actually about 10m away in the opposite direction. My Brother and I walked along the bank of the cliff listening, and searching with the flashlight. We walked the whole length of the car park at the east end, where they are best found, without any luck, but they continued to sing at us. As we were walking back i spotted an ominous green shape reflecting from some distant light perched on a dock.
I took a quick photo and then checked it, to find out that it was what I had hoped it would be.
-Preliminary record shot of great green bush cricket
My Brother and I climbed up To get better photos, but sadly the steepness of the cliff made it difficult to get decent shots, so we decided to bring it down to where it would be easier. We took it to some plants on the car park, and once we finished with it took it back.
It was a very impressive specimen, the best I have ever seen, and very co-operative too, so I managed to get some degree of reasonable photos, showing off the bright colours and all the other features that make this species so special.
-Great green bush cricket
so it was a great green end to a decent day!
