Now I've found out how - here are Mark's videos of Red Squirrel on Brownsea!

Poole Harbour & Brownsea Island

Yesterday was another glorious autumn day. Mark, Mum and I went over to Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. We took a ferry boat from Poole Quay, close by the statue of Baden-Powell, across to the island. When we set off it was still overcast and quite chilly on the water but as the day wore on the sun came out and it quickly warmed up.

We saw our first red squirrel shortly after leaving the quayside. It ran across our path as we made our way towards the church. The reds are easy to spot on warm days at this time of year as they are busy feeding on the beech mast and sweet chestnuts. One squirrel spent a long time scampering around in an large relatively open area and we spent quite some time watching it, absolutely spellbound. This squirrel was getting its darker winter coat but has a red band around its tail! I managed to get a couple photos and Mark, who has x40 magnification on his digital camera, managed to get a couple of video clips.

If you don't know Brownsea Island or anything about Red Squirrels then you can take a Red Squirrel guided walk (morning and afternoons until 25th October) which will take you to the best places for seeing the squirrels. For those less able visitors there is a free tractor-trailer trail which runs twice a day (again morning and afternoon).

I hope that you enjoyed the slideshow of our pictures in the previous post. For some reason Blogger has a fit when I try and put text in the same post as the slideshow so I've had to split the post into two! Blogger also doesn't allow video clips any more so I can't show Marks video of the red quirrel eating at present.

P.S.
I have put Mark's video clips of the squirrel eating on youtube. Here are the links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EmHx5yz1M and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DYDu7dws8 

Check out this clip that's been put on youtube of a Brownsea squirrel burying a nut - soooo cute! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8FNeUZXlwM

Brownsea Island & Poole Harbour Slideshow

First sighting

There is a pair of swans in Poole Harbour that are really good parents. They regularly successfully rear 4 or 5 youngsters each year. In the summer I often see them and their signets at the quay swimming around the boats and pontoons. But this year I hadn't seen them and I was beginning to think that something must have happened to one or other of the pair. So I was delighted to see them this morning with three healthy looking signets.