An inhabitant of the Isle of Wight

On the brief journey from the car ferry terminal at Fishbourne up to Quarr Abbey I espied through the car window a red squirrel in a suburban garden. This was the first time I had ever seen a red squirrel, and remembered that the Isle is one of  the few parts of lowland Bitain where the red squirrel has not been deprived of its habitat by the uincreasingly ubiquitous North American grey squirrel - a late nineteenth century import. I was, however, surprised ro see it in a garden - I had assumed they would have retreated to the wooded areas of the island.

Image; 2009photolibrary.com / BBC