Isle of Wight Part 2: In which owls go ‘woof’.

Wednesday: A long day, and therefore deserving of a post all to itself. We started by catching a bus to Butterfly World, where you can wander at your leisure around a large greenhouse full of plants, water-features, and plenty of free-flying birds and butterflies. It was a little bit magical.

Some of the butterflies are so large that, as with the birds, you have to duck your head to avoid colliding with them, and you can hear their wings fluttering as they pass by. One of them even came to land on me briefly, although visitors are told not to touch them because they’re so fragile.

We also popped into the adjoining Fountain World, just in time to watch the koi carp being fed. I’m used to seeing koi because they’re so prevalent in Japan, but I didn’t know that they can live to be over seventy years old, nor that they may be worth a small fortune depending on their markings.

When we’d finished looking around, it was time for lunch in the cafe, and then onto another bus to Wootton steam railway station. After falling for the North Yorkshire Moors railway last summer, I decided that there need to be more steam trains in my life, so the plan was to travel in good old-fashioned style from Wootton to Havenstreet, where we would enjoy a one hour falconry session. Wootton station was very small, but included a charming signalman who kindly consented to having his picture taken. This was encouraging, as I need to practise my portraiture, but am normally too shy to approach people about it.

Once we got to Havenstreet, we met the falconers, who whisked us away to a nearby field and introduced us to a varied line-up of birds of prey. First was Buzz the barn owl, who was still quite young and noisy, and then Woof the eagle owl (named after the funny noise he makes), who spent most of the time shuffling around his handler’s feet instead of flying, and looking hopefully up for bits of food.

We also met a different kind of eagle owl, a pair of Harris hawks that demonstrated their hunting skills for us, and two small falcons that I had never seen before and which I unfortunately can’t remember the names of. We got to have a go at flying all of the birds, which was great fun.

Back to Newport for dinner and a film, and finally to bed.

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