Here on the Isle of Wight we are very fortunate in having a healthy population of Red Squirrels, the English Channel forming a handy barrier to prevent the incursion of the alien Grey Squirrel. I'm told that the occasional Grey Squirrel makes the leap, courtesy of a Wightlink or Red Funnel ferry, but they are soon dealt with. And, if you did happen to try to smuggle one across and got caught, you'd face a 2 year imprisonment or £5000 fine!

The Red Squirrel above was spotted in Golden Hill Country Park, which bounds our quiet little estate on 2 sides. I didn't have much hope of seeing one in the road, though. But then, a few weeks ago I happened to be looking out of our front window when a Red Squirrel bounded across the lawn on the opposite side of the road. Wow! I ran out with the video canera and the result is below. I'm disappointed by the poor footage, considering how close I was to it, but I'm hoping for some good quality footage as the year goes on. Our house is the one you can see at the beginning of the video, just to the left of the blue car.