Isle of Wight Birds - Part 2

Since my last post about the bird life of the Isle of Wight (see here), Jayne and I have managed to see a few more species, and get a few more nice views of species previously reported.

New species seen were; Dartford Warbler (1 on Tennyson Down), Gannet ( 1 adult that flew past Ventnor Beach), Kingfisher (1 from the hide at Newtown NNR), Curlew (2 flying over the saltmarsh at Newtown NNR), Wheatear (3 juveniles on Tennyson Down) and House and Sand Martin (both seen in Bembridge, the first over the pub, and the second species over the beach).

Along with these new species, we also enjoyed good views of some other species. Highlights were a fishing Little Egret  seen on two occasions in Bembridge Harbour. 2 Greenshanks were also seen here on Friday 12th, up from the single bird seen earlier in the holiday.

Little Egret

After the sight of 2 Ravens flying high over Afton Down on 31st July, we enjoyed excellent views of 2 (possibly a pair?)  at The Needles. Both birds were flying around the New Battery for most of our visit, and eventually came down to grab some picnic left overs from the floor, before landing on a metal mast. Great views!

Ravens (look at those beaks!)

Also seen on Tennyson Down were Stonechats, including at least 3 juveniles.

The last bird of note has to be the juvenile Mediterranean Gull that was kind enough to land on the beach at Bembridge just in front of me, and stayed long enough for a photo.

Mediterranean Gull

Newtown NNR

One of the places I was very keen to revisit on the Isle of Wight was the National Trust's  Newtown National Nature Reserve, a large estuary on the north of the island. I last visited this reserve back in 2002, when I was last on the island, looking for a very special bird, the Little Egret. At the time, this was a new species for me, and still a relatively rare bird in Britain. We managed to see one then, after quite a lot of searching. This year's visit was much easier, with 4 birds seen.

Newtown Estuary and Little Egret

The tide was well in when we got to Newtown, so we didn't see too many other coastal birds, except a couple of Oystercatchers, 3 Curlews, Redshank (heard) and 2 Greenshank.

As well as the birds, we also spent some time looking at the insects on the reserve. Butterflies seen were: Comma (1), Peacock (1), Gatekeeper (dozens), Meadow Brown (dozens), Speckled Wood (3), Small Skipper (1), Common Blue (3 - 2 males and a female) and Marbled White (1).  

Common Blue (male)

Two other insects of note were both new to me and Jayne, namely Wasp Spider and a type of horsefly (nice!!) called Tabanus autumnalis.

The Wasp Spider is a relative newcomer to Britain, and is still confined mainly to the south of the country (see here).  We saw 3 webs within a small, 1m patch of grass near the public bird hide. The pictures show the upper and underside of a female. She sits in the middle of the web. The male is much smaller, and less colourful, and  is usually eaten by the female after mating.

Wasp Spider (upperside)

Wasp Spider (underside)

The final picture is of the horsefly Tabanus autumnalis. This "beauty", about 2cm long, landed on my bag, and then flew into a bush, where I was able to get this photo. Luckily, it didn't manage to take a bite out of me or Jayne.

Tabanus autumnalis