Firestone Copse

A short visit to Firestone Copse this year, to take a picnic and to check up on the coastal redwoods there.

An expedition which started with an even shorter visit to Oasis of reference 2, the people from whom we bought our bedspread, and the one before that, both single pieces of striped cotton fabric from India. Where by single, I mean a piece woven in one go, possibly on a large hand loom While Oasis the building started out as redundant glass houses. No bedspread - stock moves on in ten years - but we did take tea and rock cakes, which last were fresh enough, but the mix was not quite right. Not up to Yaverland standards at all.

Parked up at the Copse in time to take a stroll before it would be time to take our picnic, heading out what was probably west from the car park. It did not occur to me to use the OS map on my telephone, which included a compass, and might have meant that we kept better track of where we were, relative to the car park than we in fact did. Assuming that is, that there was a decent signal.

Some impressively tall fir trees.

The view through the trees a bit further on.

What appeared to be bamboo. Presumably a stray from somewhere nearby. Perhaps they are used to screen the nearby nudist colony, mentioned at reference 1?

Getting taller. Was it a coastal?

These were not that big, but they were impressive nonetheless, and I think I decided that they were.

Red enough to be a redwood close to, even if I failed to hold the telephone straight.

We did not come across any wood ants' nests in the Copse, as I had been hoping and expecting. But we did hear the odd buzzard.

From where we took the long road to Ryde and found some shaded parking for our hire car. Just about time for a quick walk on the beach. With umbrella against the sun. Followed by Tesco's, cherries, pork stew (previously noticed) and so forth.

PS 1: we were reminded of a story that there were no foxes on the Isle of Wight, with evidence against being the food put out for them by an old gentleman in Lower Furlongs, the street in Brading where we used to stay before we moved up to West Street. First thought was to ask Gemini, but second was to ask Bing, who turned up reference 3. I couldn't cope with the statistics, never mind the graphic snapped above, but the story seems to be that the genetics are consistent with the now plentiful island foxes having been isolated from the mainland population subsequent to their introduction in the 19th century, for the greater good of red-coated hunting. The sort of people who turn out for 'Midsomer Murders'. Didn't need to ask Gemini at all on this occasion.

Clever stuff this DNA. Resolving all kinds of ancient disputes.

PS 2: I had already forgotten what the FST statistic was, to be found at reference 3 and explained at reference 4, despite having looked it up quite recently. I would think within the last couple of months.

PS 3: the unusual war memorial marked bottom right was not visited on this occasion, but it was visited back in 2016, as noticed at reference 1.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=Willis-Fleming.

Reference 2: https://www.oasis-iow.co.uk/.

Reference 3: Ancestry and genetic differentiation of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on the Isle of Wight - Williams, N.F., Short, M., Andreou, D., Porteus, T.A., Stillman, R.A., Hoodless, A.N. & Hardouin, E.A. - 2024. Mammal Communications 10: 8-14, Blandford Forum. To be found at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/654a3265fcbd755384b0552f/t/6707bf2a2739a17b051a8e19/1728560940296/Ancestry+and+genetic+differentiation+of+red+foxes.pdf. 

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_index.