BREAKING NEWS: GLOW WORMS

What an exciting night I've had. I was sat quite happily on my sofa watching today's episode of SpringWatch unsprung on the TV and following the discussions on the Message Boards when some one mentioned GlowWorms. Now I absolutely adore GlowWorms and have been following several colonies for years. It all started the day of my 21st birthday. I started chatting to an elderly man when the conversation turned to GlowWorms. As a boy he use to come to Llandudno for holidays and always went GlowWorm spotting on the Great Orme. It had been 50 years since he'd seen them and we even checked with the Warden there but she had never heard of any. So I decided to postpone my birthday celebrations and go GlowWorm Spotting on my 21st instead. The first place we tried had none even though this had been the best spot all those years ago. We soon realised what a long shot this really was. But then we went to another site a few miles away and to our delight aftre only minutes of looking we found 18 of them glowing bright. I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday. Sadly a couple of years later, Llandudno witnessed dreadful floods and the hillside where the GlowWorms habitated, collapsed into the sea. It was a long wait the following year to see if any had survived and thankfully there were 2 females. The following year we had 4 females and last time I checked there were over 100. A few years later I moved into this village the first thing I did was go GlowWorm Spotting and I was so lucky to find another colony. Not officially in my garden but I can get to them quicker than a kettle boils. Now even this colony hasn't had it easy and probably all my own fault. They are situated in the grounds of an old building which had been left alone for many years, but recently a group of people got together to try and save the building. They had all good intentions but sadly they started mowing the grounds just as the GlowWorms were breeding. I have always been secretive about exact locations so people don't just turn up with a jam jar and destroy everything, but their mowing was decimating the colony so I took the chance and had a word with a few people on the committee. The following year, sadly my worst fears were realised and word got out of their existance. I searched for weeks but not a single one was found and again the following year, nothing. It only took one stupid selfish person with a jar, collecting the females for their own garden and not realising the males wouldn't know were to find them. After not seeing any for such a long time here I had totally given up until I saw the thread on the BBC Message Board and felt the urge to have one last look. You couldn't imagine my delight when I saw in the long grass that wonderful unmistakable green glow. OK I did only see one but as the males don't glow, they could be there and all you need is a pair to get the colony back again. I do feel protective about them and I don't know how best to save them from sticky fingers this year. My only hope is the person responsible doesn't remember what month to look. Wow that was an essay but I needed to get it off my chest. :-) The stars are wonderful again tonight.