A brief encounter

The pictures in this blog are not very good but we are thrilled to have them.  It is a short blog.  There was one thing that the Minis had set their hearts on seeing before they left us.  It is something very difficult to find, let alone get pictures of.  Now they have seen this, so after a trip to the university to meet a Twitter pal, they will leave, having had a satisfactory experience.

We took the boys to a secret location, where they had to be very quiet and look upwards into a tree and wait.

OK, look very carefully and see the fluffy tail.  That is a red squirrel!!  These are the native British squirrel, they can only be found in a few places in England now, the island is one of them.  Most years we never see one.  Yesterday the Minis saw two!!  One would have been easier to photograph, but we didn't have the camera ready.  This one sat for a while staring at us.  They are much shyer than the grey squirrels that we see on the mainland.  The red ones survive on the island because we can keep the grey ones off, so they don't destroy the habitats.  They don't have money for ferry tickets!!  You have to be very patient and quiet to see these.

The Minis are very happy to have seen them.