Shanklin at Christmas after dark.

Shanklin was developed as a seaside resort town on the Isle of Wight - a location made popular when Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert chose the island to build their holiday home, Osbourne House, at East Cowes in the northeast corner of the island. In the decades that followed, Shanklin and neighbouring Sandown stayed at the popular end of the UK holiday market. They were blessed with long sandy beaches and famously the UK's sunshine record was often held by Shanklin.... making it just a tad sunnier than anywhere else in the UK.

I grew up here and in the years since I was a kid, Shanklin has lost some of its grand villas (with many smaller houses occupying what were once gardens with elegant cedars, monkey puzzle trees and other arboreal specimen trees). Some of the key shops in the town have also gone, Woolworth's, Barclay's Bank, Beardsales (the wonderful stationary shop), the Sports Shop (where everyone went for their school uniforms and PE kits) but other have come to occupy their places, including Poundland and two branches of the Co-op supermarket!

There are still many hotels and guesthouses, many looking out from the cliff over Sandown Bay and the thatched end of town still hosts the Crab Inn, handsome parkland and other pretty features.

Here are some images from a little stroll on Boxing Day evening under a big but somewhat veiled moon.

Shanlin Beach at moonrise.

A view of Hope Beach.

The Crab Inn.

The Chine Inn - sadly closed.

The Streamer Inn on Shanklin seafront.

Regent's Street - with Christmas lights!

 

When cat meets fox 2

 

I have observed this meeting of species before but this one was nicely close-up, so here it is.

I know some people worry about their cats when they know there are foxes around but I think that it is pretty clear here which is the dominant animal. 

Night of the fox.

Just a pretty vixen in  a suburban garden on the Isel of Wight.

 

One night later - foraging in the rain.

Unexpected animals in the November garden.

I am surprised to discover hedgehogs scampering around my garden.

In the 25 years I have lived here I have only seen one twice before. 

I am doubly surprised because of the presence of badgers here!

The hedgehogs seem to hide away when the badger is visiting.... and in the next snippet of film you can see the size difference of these two native British mammals.

Autumn at the Somerset Coal Canal

Just some photos from around the Somerset Coal Canal - which is a little spur of water off the Kennet and Avon canal to the south of the city of Bath.

A view looking along the Dunedas aquaduct on a misty afternoon.

A sleepy cormorant 

A view looking the opposite way over the aquaduct.

Seals of Bardsey Autumn 2023

It is Autumn. The air is turning cold and the night is now longer than the day. Out off the Lleyn Peninsula in northwest Wales, seperated from the mainland by an infamously fierce channel of boiling waters sits Ynys Enlli; the island in the Tides. We anglophones call it Bardsey. 

The gales of the equinoxal period see clouds of migrant birds pass by and on the more favourable shores of the little rocky island, female seals swollen with pregnancy haul out, rest, give birth. Then for three intense weeks they transfer much of their body fat into their white-coated pups via their rich nurturing milk. 

Nearby swim the far larger bull seals. They are patrolling territories with one or more mother seal within, waiting - with varying degrees of patience - for the mothers to leave their pups and accept their advances.

Here are some of the scenes from Autumn on Bardsey.   

Bardsey island viewed from its western most tip. 

A gentle moment between male and female. 

A few smaller seals - marked out by their reddish fur - are yearlings.

The star of the Autumn seashore - a white-coated pup

And another.

Meanwhile a flock of starlings migrate by.

Sleepers on the shore - seemingly exhausted mother with her plump little pup.

A flock of turnstones resting on the hightide rocks alongside the bigger oystercatcher.

Portrait of a bull in repose.

A wheatear - common bird of the island.

Another resting bull.

An island speciality - the red-billed chough.

The recently orphaned pup - fat, moulted and ready to go to sea. 

Suckling pup.

Some views -

Another chough

A slime mould on the sward

Goldfinch feeding on the old thistle heads.

A yawning pup.

Faces in the sea.

Another fine bull

A long-tailed tit passes by with its small flock.

A moulted pup plays with a piece of seaweed.

Mother and her pup - a whiskery kiss.

A Bardsey sunset looking west towards Ireland.

Some words of advice blown over by the storm.

And finally - the way home.

For more information about Bardsey - see the website of the Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory HERE.