Great Spotted Cuckoo, Isle Of Wight

After a long day out yesterday it was another early start but this time to the Isle Of Wight. Frustratingly they had scored with a Great Spotted Cuckoo which for us Hampshire birders was rather annoying and yet again re iterates what could be if it wasn't for the IOW covering most of the Hampshire coastline.

I drove the short distance from my home to the red funnel terminal and caught the 9am crossing from Southampton to East Cowes. The crossing takes roughly and hour and un surprisingly there wasn't anything to be seen which is fairly typical of the Solent. Ellie was a right handful running around the deck jumping in puddles almost continuously from when we left to when we docked. 

On arriving at East Cowes it was only a 30 minute drive across the IOW to the southern end of the island. After navigating the twisty steep roads we arrived into Ventnor and parked at Wheelers Bay car park. There was a steep descent down onto the seafront which on the way back killed me pushing Ellie in her pushchair. After walking east for c10 minutes I arrived to be greeted by at least 15 people and one of them was Simon colenutt which was nice to finally meet him and another fellow Hampshire birder. 

I stayed on site for around 3 hrs and the bird showed well intermittently in the bramble patch at the base of the cliffs gorging itself on caterpillars. My best pictures came when I was attending to Ellie trying to re find her dummy which she had lost in her pushchair (she is good at this) keeping one eye on the bird I was amazed to see the cuckoo fly straight at me and land only some 10m away or perhaps closer. I had my converter on but tbh even with it off I don't think a whole bird pic would have been possible. 

Great Spotted Cuckoo. (Look at that tail!!)

I left around 2pm as I had a decent time with the bird and Ellie I think had had enough of the early starts and birdwatching so I headed back to catch an earlier ferry than I had booked. Once back at the terminal I pulled up to the kiosk and asked the guy if it was possible to get on an earlier ferry. His response was an abrupt no! I replied saying really I had only just checked and there was still space on the 4:30pm sailing but he replied again no sorry mate at the earliest 6pm. I got the feeling he just couldn't be arsed to check so pulled over and rang up red funnel and spoke tp a nice lady who had a look and said I could swap to the 4:30pm ferry. 

I parked up for an hour letting Ellie have a nap and I couldn't wait to get back to the terminal and speak to the guy but unfortunately when I did he wasn't there and I was greeted by a lady who said to park in lane 8. 10 minutes passed and when I got waved on guess who it was lol. Yes! The bald guy who said I couldn't get on. As i pulled away i drove reslly slowly staring at him and he eventually realised who I was and turnt the other way and wouldnt look at me, made my day and topped off another great days birding and Photography.



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