A glow in the dark

The last day of term for the boys so I had thought I might see if any of them fancied a spot of nightjar-watching. However, after a day of showers, and more persistent rain seeming to set in towards late afternoon, I decided that eating out followed by a walk around Dunwich Heath in search of glow-worms might be more appealing (and who knows, I might get a nightjar thrown in too). I think the exertions of the Summer term must have caught up on them, as none of them appeared particularly enthused, but a healthy (!) dose of pizza seemed to perk them all up and as the rain had abated we set off to Dunwich Heath. I don't think anyone was overly impressed at the distance we had to travel, but we arrived at around 9:30 under cloudy but dry skies, albeit a bit on the blowy side. We set off across the heath and soon surprised three fine red deer, who stood watching us warily in the twilight. We tracked back round the edge of the heath and as certain members of our party had gotten themselves thoroughly spooked with talk of monsters in the river, the army of the dead and the notorious goat-man, we cut back up a small path towards where we had begun. A faint churring sound in the distance confirmed that there were nightjars around, accompanied by the occasional hooting of tawny owls. We had almost reached the car when there it was, a small greenish glow from the undergrowth ahead of us. Another was soon found and we were able to marvel at these wonderful little creatures with their glowing bottoms. Not at all worm-like, we saw a couple more along the road back over the heath, and then a lovely young fox, busying itself at the side of the road, before hurrying out of the glare of the headlights. All in all a wonderful evening and one I shall remember for some time to come - my first glow-worms! Julia too enjoyed it, and I am sure in time my boys too will look back and maybe even be pleased to have experienced this glow in the dark evening.