All that glisters

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/23/all-glisters

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I hear a soft splash. In the lingering twilight I can just make out the sinuous form of an otter as it pirouettes and rolls under the water in one fluid motion as my kayak passes by. As it dives, barely perceptible pin pricks of silvery-blue light form an aura around its body.

As the light fades, my kayak glides through the sleek, inky-blue water and slips silently into the night. Water trickles off my paddle like a cascade of diamonds. I wiggle my fingers in the water and blooms of bioluminescent dinoflagellates scintillate like a starry sky, each light sparkling for a fraction of a second.

This "living light" is produced when the single-celled microorganisms, a type of microscopic algae, are disturbed. It is believed to act as a defence mechanism, startling predators or attracting larger predators that will in turn attack the creatures preying upon the phytoplankton.

Like steel sparking on flint, bioluminescence flares off the blades of my paddle as they strike the water. The closer I go to the shore, the more intense it becomes, so I duck under the low-hanging boughs and hug the shoreline. In the deep shadow beneath the trees I swirl my paddle to whip up glittering whirlpools and slap the water so that starburst after starburst explodes across the surface like fireworks .

As I trail my hand through the water my fingers snag in a slimy knot of seaweed and a burst of cold blue silhouettes the individual strands of bladderwrack. In the depths a flickering plume of light momentarily gives away the presence of a nocturnal predator. The scent of wild honeysuckle and woodsmoke hangs above the water. I feel the feather of a breeze on my cheek. Clouds scud in from the south, veiling the stars.

As rain begins to spatter down, dimpling the water's surface, I head back across the lough. A pair of mute swans ghost out of the darkness and flank my kayak. Twinkling meteor trails glow in their wake as they guide me back to shore.

@ClaireStares