Isle of wight Day 3-ventnor botanics

it was a overcast morning that greeted us, but it was quite warm so we decided to go to the botanic gardens at Ventnor. Botanic gardens are often good for wildlife so I went with my family to the gardens. The entrance building was quite modern, but when I saw the map I was gutted to learn that there was only one pond, and that was next to the cafe, so I didn't rate my chances of finding any dragonflies very highly.
There was however a meadow at the far end of the site, which might have had some butterflies, so i decided that that would be where I went for the day. But first there was the issue of going to the cafe, and there would be the pond there too.
The pond was a small concrete affair with a wide variety of plants but not much else. I got my first odonata sighting of the holiday with the small numbers of blue-tailed damselflies that were there, including form rufescens-obsoleta.

-Blue tailed damselfly

After a morning snack I made my way to the meadow at the far end. I was not surprised to find that it was just a field, all be it a very big one. I was also not surprised to find that there was an excessive number of grasshoppers and crickets in the field. I this one which was quite big...

-Large Cricket
There were also a large number of butterflies, including the usual gatekeepers, large whites and meadow browns, but also, for the third day on the trot I spotted a marbled white butterfly

-Marbled white
Secretly I was hoping for a glanville fritillary, although their flight season had past, there may be just one or two hanging around, and we were quite near to st. catherines point where they exist, so there was no reason why the shouldn't be here.

They would have to wait though, as i received a text from my dad telling me that they had found a family of partridges with babies, as well as lizards. When I caught up with them, back at the cafe my dad said that they had lost them, but showed me a lizard sunbathing on a flat rock.

-Common Wall Lizard

We look around for the partridges but it was my mum that found them, accidentally stumbling upon them resting away from the path. I watched them and counted about seven babies, as they began to move around looking for a new place to rest. I took some photos to show how cute they were, but there isn't a great deal more to say, so just enjoy the photos.

-Red legged partridge female with chicks
I then spotted another lizard, this one closer to me, allowing me to get a few more quick shots of lizards, this one was more awake and scurried when i tried to get closer.

-Common wall lizard
Back in the field, I spent my time walking around the clumps of thistle's looking for potential fritillaries, I didn't find any, but I did find a group of young willow warblers, that was nice-a real day for baby birds.

-Baby willow warblers
I continued to walk around the field and as i did so, I kept flushing small skippers from the grass, only when they landed again they had their wings closed which i have never seen before. This is what attracted me to have a closer look, and I kept finding them and watching them for a long time until they opened their wings. eventually i found one that did open its wings. I didn't really know what they were, but i knew that the difference between small and essex skippers is to do with the black on the underside of the attenne, so I had a look and it seemed to fit the bill. If I'm right then I have another new species of butterfly, but I still have some doubts over my I.D skills on such small departments. Anyway I took a lot of photos, so enjoy them, and if you know please tell me if I'm wrong.

-Essex Skipper

It got to lunch time and still no joy with the fritillaries, although I had also found a group of common blue.

During lunch there was a heavy rain storm so I guessed that me chances had just about finished, but I went back anyway to try and find one.

Moving further into the field i passed some cages, where there were ponds and llamas, and also a grey heron looking wet and miserable.

-Grey heron
I continued to walk around the field until I found a small stream, I followed it hoping to encounter a scarce blue tailed damselfly or summit, but instead i encountered a crab spider-my first time ever seeing one, so was pleasantly surprised. It was actually hunting too, although not very subtly,as it was on a purple thistle. It moved to try and subtly hide away from me as I got some photos of it, and it even moved sideways like a crab, by the far the best thing i have seen all day.

-Crab Spider

on my way back to the car park I received a text from my dad saying that they were going now and that I could either stay and catch up with them at Ventnor beach or come with them. I decided to stay so that I couldn't possible overlook anything in the field. The next thing I saw was a pair of juvenile buzzards perched high in a dead tree and calling really loudly. One adult kept flying around, but I dunno which one it was.

-Common Buzzard
One bird you will quickly get to grips with upon the isle of wight is the green woodpecker, every site seems to have them there, and this one was no exception, I had heard them all day, but only now did I spot one-in the top of a tree?? Its the first time I have ever seen one in a tree!

-green woopeckerAs I walked back through the field there continued to be plenty of essex skippers and as the weather began to improve they began to open their wings more, even though that didn't help at all with my I.D...

-Essex SkipperI left the field eventually and made my way to the exit. By now it was quite warm and there were a few more damselflies on the pond, all still blue tailed though.

-Blue tailed damselfly, rufescens obsoletaWhen I left the gardens I didn't really know what to do, but since it had brightened up I decided to go back to rew down, for the third time only this time I truly believed that I might actually see some of the butterflies it had there.

It was quite a walk, all up-hill but when I got there I was please to note that there were quite a few butterflies around, so I was quite optimistic about finding an adonis. The first butterfly that wasn't a gatekeeper was a marbled white, no surprise there.

-Marbled White
When I got down the the area of long grass, that was not mown I was not surprised to find a large number of blue butterflies. However having not done my homework I had no clue as to how to tell the difference between the common and adonis blue.

So I resolved to take a photo of every blue butterfly I saw, but I quickly realised that this was not sustainable as I was running out of photos on this card, and the other card was left in the caravan.

I watched the various blue butterflies, but the first one to catch my eye was the one featured below, was it a very brown common blue or a very blue brown argus. I think that it is a brown argus, but i would say that having seen plenty of common blues and only one brown argus.

-Brown Argus

I eventually found a butterfly that might be what I was looking for. I didn't recognise the underwing pattern, and although it refused to open its wings appeared to be an adonis. It was very small, which is what threw me. I lost this butterfly, but found one later that had the same markings, but upon opening its wings had very dark insides of its wings. That one was a female chalk-hill blue, but was this one, were they the same butterfly? The female chalk-hill blue would be much bigger in theory but I didn't see them next to each other so I can't call the size difference and that's the only thing I have to go on really.

-Adonis blue? or female chalk-hill blue?
And on the note of chalk-hill I saw one of them too, my first, a wonderful male with a rather sorryfull chip in its wings, but even so it was a really nice record and another new butterfly tick, so i followed it around to try and get some record shots, and I have done a decent job.

-Chalk-Hill BlueIt was great to see a butterfly, one of those i really badly wanted to see during the holiday, but once i lost it I decided I would have to try and return to find an adonis.

It was infuriating how many blue butterflies there were there, all of them common blues. Be having said that, the common blues looked great with the evening light reflecting off their wings.

-Common Bluewalking around I spotted a group of about three small moths or butterflies fluttering near a hawthorn tree. I wondered if they might be skippers, dingy or grizzled so I watched them. when they landed i was plesantly surprised by the fact that they were actually a very colourful micro-moth. I dunno what kind it actually is but from the book I reckon its a pyrausta genus

-pyrausta sp. (aurata?)
I managed to catch up with the chalk-hill blue again, and it was the same one judging by the chip on its lower wing-but it allowed me to get some more shots of what was a pretty impressive butterfly. I diddnt realise that they were so much bigger than other blues

-Chalk hill blue

Still the Adonis were avoiding me, and again I had common blues a plenty!

-Common Blue
but the chalk-hill blue made it all better

-Chalk-hill blue
I decided to look furthur affield in the reserve and not stick to the same area. I wondered if i was past the time of flight for adonis, and then thought that that never made any difference. It then occured to me that I haddnt seen a ringlet for about a month, and was filled with a sense of hope-less-ness, however, ironically I found a ringlet hidden amongst the hawthorn bushes.

I got a text from my mum and dad telling me that my lift had arrived, so I had to leave, but on my way out I spotted a wall brown on the path, which was my first of the year, and also my first oppertunity to get a record shot that I had been wanting.

-Wall Brown

So ends another day, and despite the rain the weather had been really good hence the large numbers of butterflies and with another two new species I was on course for a new butterfly ever day!

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.