One of the things that I like to do occasionally in the evening is walk down to the front gate and simply wait to greet my wife when she arrives home. It is sometimes 2 minutes, sometimes half an hour. Just quietly breathing the evening air: and watching the horses in their paddocks, the cows across the road and the stars in the sky if it is that late.
The other night, in the twilight, something flew from the big pines at the entry, over my head, to one of the Lemon Scented Gums on the driveway. I thought it was a bat! I could see it climbing the tree and as I approached it glided steeply down to the next gum: a Sugar Glider! About the size of my hand and looking a bit like a Ring Tail Possum, it is distinguished by the aerodynamic membranes between it’s front and rear legs and the fact that it uses those membranes to glide from tree to tree.
I had never seen one before and truly only saw it for perhaps 20 seconds in the twilight. Had I been looking for one I would have been disappointed by the brief glimpse in the half light. But, out of the blue, it was a gift; and it made my night!
South of Melbourne 