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Thursday 12 June 2014

Glow Worms

T'was a clear, calm and moonlit scene down on the Mickleover Greenway last night, most folk abed or watching late night telly, but some signs of human activity as a small party of Rangers were carrying out the annual glow worm count.
Recent periods of heavy rain showers and warm sunshine  have resulted in rapid growth of the path-side vegetation, making it difficult to see the little creatures therein.
Also a few false alarms - the gleam of a cat's eyes, watching what we were up to at this hour and a few young rabbits hopping about in the dark. No doubt we were being watched by other nocturnal wildlife as well.
The glint of the moonlight on the trickling waters of Etwall Brook, and the reflection on pieces of litter in the undergrowth were other false alarms..
The croak of the pheasant and the hooting of owls added to the magic of the night scene.
But enough of this rubbish, the big question is .............
How many glow worms did we see? And how does that figure compare with previous surveys?
Well the score was 37. not a large number, but have never seen more than 40 odd, so not bad at all.
We have to remember that we are always  likely to miss quite a lot, some hidden by vegetation and also we suspect that they switch off the light after mating.
Rather like humans.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

An interesting little foray Les.

littleranger said...

A very interesting and exciting evening and beautifully captured by Les who incidently joined us after Bannell's Gate but cycled from the Etwall side and startled a few Rangers and friends thinking there was a very large glow worm catching us up and about to invade us!