A Day Trip to IOW

We had a day trip to the IOW yesterday, getting up at 3am, leaving the house at 4.30am and arriving on the island at 8 am, we got home at just after 9pm.  A long tiring day!  It was interesting to see just how much busier the ferry and Island was now the school holidays have started.

Leaving Southampton we had a lovely view from our seats.  We normally sit up the top with the dogs, but as we didn't have the dogs with us this time we sat in the lounge area and got 'front row seats' which was lovely.

We say this Cruise ship on our way to the Island.

Not far away now!

Our first stop was Alverstone Mead Reserve.  We went there a couple of weeks ago on another day trip and were delighted to see some red squirrels, very 'up close and personal' and I wanted to go back and get some better pictures as I only had my small hand held camera on me at the time.  Sadly though this time we only saw one squirrel at a distance climbing/running through the trees.  Funny thing is though - and this really was quite bizarre - I took some peanuts to put down on the shelves in the hide in case there weren't any, and they weren't and well I am convinced someone took them!  We put them down - several large handfuls, both inside the hide where the squirrels had come last time, and on the shelf that hangs on the outside of the hide.  Nothing came along so we went for a five minute walk - and really only was five minutes, came back and there was someone in the hide, and absolutely NO peanuts left whatsoever, not even the husks.  I made a comment about goodness they went quick and she said, oh there have been lots of Jays around, they must have taken them.  Well I have seen Jays feed, and in fact we saw some a little later, and they tend to swoop in and take one away - there would have had to have been an awful lot of Jays to have taken all the peanuts I had put down in a mere five minutes and would they have come INSIDE the hide as well?? I think not.  So our only conclusion was, was that she pocketed them for some reason which seems really strange.  When she had left, I put down some more peanuts and we repeated our experiment after watching what birds would come and feed while we were there , and we left for five minutes or so and then came back...and guess what the peanuts were still there!  So really there is no other logical explanation as to what happened to those peanuts.  Anyway back to the birds...

Now for some photos of the squirrels we saw last time we were here - not the best photos, but they still capture the experience of seeing these wonderful squirrels so close.  It was incredible.

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After we left the nature reserve we drove to Freshwater Bay.  The day was amazing and the sea actually looked very inviting.

So pretty.

Funnily enough shortly after I took these photos a sea mist came in and it turned completely grey and 'cloudy' but only lasted for about an hour and then cleared up again, by which time we were in another part of the island.

A good day, not long enough, we would have liked to have had more time to 'relax and enjoy'.