So, July 11th and then again July 18th, I went glow-worm hunting!

You may be looking quizzical now, so let me explain. My friend works at the Wildlife Trust and helps manage an old chalk quarry just south of where I live. They’re letting nature take it back, and part of the nature is glow-worms! They’re like fireflies (in the same family, actually) because their butts glow, but they don’t fly.

She does surveys to count the glow-worms and get an idea of the population from year to year. So, she took a bunch of us city-folk with her for fun. It was a good chance to practice some night photography (which my camera isn’t stellar at, as you’ll see in a minute)

First, some facts!

We saw 19 glow-worms the first time, and only 3 the second trip! Guess they all found mates! They are bloody hard to take pictures of, I can tell you that:

And here’s a rather blurry, dark photo of the chalk pit.

Here’s East Pit by day: