Isle of Wight

A first ever visit to the Isle of Wight for me, the highlight was a visit to West High Down / Tennyson Down on the west coast, near the Needles. Here we saw lots of nice butterflies, including our only chalk-hill blues of the holiday, as well as some interesting flowers. Also here our only Dartford warblers after drawing a blank in the New Forest on Sunday, and several bush-crickets.

At Ventnor we found two Wall Lizards and at Ryde at least 10 Mediterranean gulls.

Year: 239 (Dartford warbler)

Chalk-hill blue.

Clustered bellflower.

Clustered bellflower.

Dark bush-cricket.

Not too sure about this. I thought at first it might be great green bush-cricket, but the shape of the  ovipositor and the overall size of the insect lead me to believe that it may be Meconema thalassinum or oak bush-cricket. Still doesn't seem quite right though, but I can't think what else it can be.

Here are a couple more photos of bush-crickets I found nearby (i.e. within 1m of the specimen above).

I don't know much about bush-crickets, but from the orange stripe down its back, I would have thought that this has to be great green bush cricket. I'm assuming it's mature given the length of its ovipositor but it's too small and has short wings. Maybe it's in a transitional stage between nymph and adult.

I'm assuming that this is a nymph because it has no wings.

Gatekeeper.

Marbled white

A common sight on the south coast these days, an adult Mediterranean gull.

Black-headed gull and Med gull, a different bird to the above.

Common Wall Lizard. Ventnor is the only place on the Isle of Wight where this lizard is found and from what I've read it appears to be the oldest colony of the species in the UK. Wall lizards are native to Europe, and whilst it is possible that this may be a remnant native population, wall lizards are generally considered to be introduced into the UK either by accident or design.

The Needles.

West High Down from Tennyson Down