A few days ago we finally arrived at our new home in Freshwater on the far western side of the Isle of Wight. I've already been assured by a number of people that 'the West is best and everyone else can keep the rest'!! Of course, I can't speak from experience, and the last thing I would want to do is upset anyone who is fortunate to live anywhere on this beautiful island, but the West Wight does tend to be less 'touristy' than other areas and there's some beautiful countryside that I'm really looking forward to exploring once we get unpacked and the house is a bit straighter.The Common Toad pictured above was found under some bramble close to our garage...it's one of the biggest that I've seen for a long time and not a bad specimen for my first Isle of Wight amphibian!
This is a map of the Isle of Wight - if you click on the picture you will get a larger version...and you can see what I mean when I say that Freshwater is in the west!
And here is an aerial photo of The Needles which is just down the road from us. Freshwater is a part of the village you can just make out in the distance.This blog will now become an account of what I begin to find around me, and I'm sure it's going to include many pleasant surprises. I'm told that there are no deer on the Isle of Wight (the New Forest on the other side of the Solent makes up for that!); there are no American Mink...which makes for a flourishing Water Vole population; and, likewise, the absence of Grey Squirrels makes for a thriving population of Red Squirrels!
I have one problem which I'd appreciate help on...what am I going to call this blog now? I was going to call it 'Wight Wild', but there's another website called 'Wight Wild SOS'. I'm a bit stuck so any suggestions will be gratefully received!!
Glad to know that the move was successful, Steve. All the best for your new life on the isle.
ReplyDeleteI`m not one bit envious. Believe that and you`ll believe anything ;-)
PS : Nowt wrong with Wild on the Wight blog title.
Thanks for your good wishes, Dean. The title came to me as I confirmed the latest post - I'll stick with it until & unless something better turns up,
ReplyDeleteThanks again,
Steve.
Lovely toad- but I am waiting for the golden ringed dragonfly photos! Like the new name.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz,
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen a Golden-ringed Dragonfly yet...not a Southern Hawker...nor a Ruddy Darter....nor an Emerald.....nor an Azure.....in fact, I haven't seen one dragon- or damselfly yet!!
One of the Isle of Wight's best kept secrets is that we have a small number of Red Deer living and breeding in the wild. They are very shy and secretive and far more difficult to spot than any farmed deer. Scientific studies have shown that when deer are at low numbers such as we have on the island their browsing and grazing can enhance biodiversity by helping to create valuable woodland edge mosaics of grassy and shrubby understorey favourable to some of the other rare mammals that we have here including red squirrels, hazel dormouse and woodland bat
ReplyDelete