All quiet on the coast

All quiet here on the island. Birds are busy moulting, bugs and butterflies waiting for the sun to shine.
Could be a long wait!!
10th august, had a walk up to Ventnor radar station, the views from the top of Nansen hill looking towards Sandown bay were breathtaking despite the overcast weather. The heather was stunning.

A meadow brown butterfly was carrying red mites.

Despite the dull weather I had a lot of fresh air and the excercise coming up nansen hill wont have done me any harm!!

Spotted in my back garden last week was a Common Darter which was a surprise as I have no pond, just a birdbath...

A family of speckled bush crickets has taken residence in my helleborus, Ive seen 3 males and two females so far. Male shown below...

A trip to Bembride ponds with Rob on the 15th was quiet on the birding front, except for 15 Little egrets and a heron all packed into a corner of the large pond, not seen that many in one place before.

Last night I dragged the wife out for a walk to Alverstone, we were hoping to catch something unusual maybe an owl or two? A chap we chatted to, saw a kingfisher half an hour previous, he told us to keep an eye open, but it wasnt our lucky night. So a nice walk, plenty of blackberries picked, and the scenery was lovely...

This morning I met up with Rog who I met on the wildaboutbritain website. As I wasnt meeting him till 9:30am I had a look around before we met. I had a brief glimpse of a jay, but no photos. I spotted a buzzard on a pole so got this digiscoped shot through my scope...

We had a good old chat about cameras, wildlife, lenses, and life in general. Not much to see this morning. A green woodpecker flew past at a rate of knots, and the butterflies seemed to love these Hemp agrimony flowers,  would love some in my garden!!

Fingers crossed for an indian summer!!!