Night Walk
About six of us set off from Heritage Park in a minibus with a guide at dusk, travelling a short distance to some woodland. Here we were given powerful torches which we used to spot the eyeshine of spiders - no, quite small ones really, but their eyes reflect light very well! It's a technique which I use for finding badgers and foxes at night during winter - it is fruitless waiting around outside a sett, as the night is so long that they can emerge when they like, and may well decide on an extended lie-in. Lamp-lighting in likely feeding areas is therefore much more likely to result in success.
As we set off through the woodland, we held the torch close to the head in order to maximise the reflected eyeshine from any wildlife which was about and had not immediately scarpered over the horizon on hearing us.
This stick insect was the first to be found, followed by several roosting birds who did not hang around long enough to be photographed. We then found several delightful little tree frogs, who were much more willing to pose for me.
Star of the evening was this forest dragon, but it could have been a flying fox we came across if only it had stuck around a bit longer ...
