Red Squirrel.
Our native squirrel, as seen on Brownsea Island today.
After the events of yesterday, today was a quiet, family day. I have wanted to visit Brownsea Island for some time, but had never made it. We also wanted to join the National Trust. Today, we did both!
One of the claims to fame of Brownsea Island is that it is home to the Red Squirrel. The whole Island is a nature reserve and conservation area, and our native species is doing well here.
As it happened, today was the first day of the season for visiting Brownsea Island. How’s that for timing? We arrived at Poole Quay just as the next sailing was about to go. We purchased our tickets, and climbed aboard.
They exist in good numbers here, although photographing them is not necessarily straight forward! They are perhaps more nervous than the common grey – especially those in the Bournemouth Gardens which are pretty much hand tame.
The Red Squirrel moves very quickly. They stop for a few seconds, then they are off again. The best way appears to be to get to the Island early, then pick a good spot, and camp down. Lesson learnt for next time.
However, today was a family visit, and a chance to explore the Island together. I was lucky to see more than one Red Squirrel, and even managed to get a few acceptable images. This little chap just stopped long enough for me to frame the photo, focus and press the shutter.
The Island is also home to Peacocks (and Peahens). I have got some photos of them that I am very pleased with. For quality, I should have posted one of them. However, the Red Squirrel is something special, so I decided to go with this image today.
Photograph Details
- Taken: 18 Mar 2017
- Camera: Canon 5D MkIII
- Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm 1:2.8 L IS II USM
- Focal Length 200mm
- F/5
- 1/200 Sec
- ISO 400