Challenge five: become a creature of the night

Ok so this is a slight cheat, but bearing in mind Angela's bat spotting challenge and my kindly bestowed pair of night-vision goggles I thought it was about time to get a bit nocturnal. So as the BBC crew were leaving the island for the night I headed out into the blackness to see what I could see, hear and smell.

There's nothing quite like a good bit of darkness to heighten the senses and after a few minutes stumbling around wildly in bushes and rabbit holes, I soon became accustomed to the lack of light and entered the world of the nocturnal.

I started my search for sounds down in the Macdonald hide which sticks out onto the lagoon. It's where compost Pete has been filming the spoonbills from. Thanks to my 'sonic listening device' I'm pleased to report a total of 8 different bird noises on the lagoon, though my night vision specs failed me in seeing what they were and to be frank, I'm completely rubbish at birds, even in broad daylight. There was a brilliant avian cacophony when the ridiculously large Brittany Ferries boat thundered its way past the sea wall, scaring the birds off the water and driving me into the forest.

Found a quiet spot where I've often encountered deer walking back late from the office (me, not them) and nestled in for a long wait...After the rutting action shown on last night's Autumnwatch the sika are clearly a bit feisty so I was prepared for a fight. Nearly had one when, after a great deal of rustling, a large stag jumped straight out of the undergrowth and directly into my path, narrowly missing my head! I did my best to remain calm and collected, but blew my cover by making a loud, and no doubt deer-terrifying, squeak which quickly moved my new friend along.

Well as you can imagine, after nearly being battered by a sika stag I was in need of something a little more sedate, so headed back to the Villa, headquarters of the Dorset Wildlife Trust on Brownsea, through the woodland to the sound of a tawny owl calling its classic twit-twoo overhead. Warden Chris and co had set up a moth trap and after Bill's success on the high seas last week, I sat and watched some of our fluttering friends find their way into that before checking it this morning. Not a bad yield with these three lovelies amongst the quarry. They'll live in our fridge for a few hours while the DWT volunteers pot and identify them before making it back into the wild world unharmed.

So there it is, my night-time quest for the sights and sounds of black-out Brownsea. If you've never been on a night-walk I'd highly recommend it. You just never know what you're going to see and it'll give you a whole new perspective on the wild world that never really sleeps.

For some sounds of your own, check out my week one round-up podcast available now! And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss next week's when warden Justin and I go wild-food crazy, plus our regular monthly wildlife and countryside podcast.