35th: Alverstone Mead – Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

You could say we came here for one reason and one reason only. Red Squirrels. That would be grossly unfair to Alvestone Mead though, it really is a glorious place in its own right.

We had travelled to Alverstone Mead via train, ferry, bus and our own 2 feet. We live on the south cost and can often see the Isle of Wight on our walks, so there was no need for a car. Mind you, the weather on the day we left was appalling, it rained… and rained, and rained. I believe the island had almost a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours.

Luckily though, it stopped at about 16:30 on our first evening, so we put our waterproofs on, just in case, and went for it. The idea was to get a quick feel for the place before returning early the next morning. It’s on a flood plain, so you may already have worked out that it would be wet, and you’d be right.

There were lots of floods, but Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust had been good enough to provide boardwalks and the water just looked incredible. It was so atmospheric seeing darkly submerged paths and trees, shrouded in shadows and mystery.

As planned, we returned very early the following day, and what a morning it was.

Breathtakingly beautiful, with its mists, glorious sunlight and drew drop laden grasses and spiders’ webs.

The reserve is actually 4 in 1; Alverstone Mead, Bensteads Marsh, Youngwoods Copse and Bretts Meadow; and we got to all of them. As you might expect there was an abundance of life here. We saw a huge number of birds, like jay, heron, chaffinch, wren, coal and blue tit. There was also the true star of the show, red squirrels.

We saw lots of them, and it is so fantastic to see what used to be so common around all of our country just living their lives. They’re smaller, lighter and, it has to be said, far more attractive than the all too common greys. Needless to say we fell in love with them and they will certainly be starring in their own artwork.