Country diary: how the tawny owl finds its way in the dark

Dunton, Bedfordshire: This bird's eyesight is not that much better than ours; it compensates by memory mappingLong after the lights in the village go on, I go off, striking out over the fields. The night sky here is full of Stansted's shooting stars, planes winking their way up and over the horizon, chasing the dim afterglow of a fallen sun.Down below, my near-invisible feet are pounding along. I'm in an outdoor gym with its own sound system - a beat that is marked by the cymbal swish of trouser leg against trouser leg, its pulse the clip of cuff on jacket, striking at the hip. Continue reading...