Environment – The Twilight Zone

The twilight zone has a bad reputation as a backdrop to science fiction. Mysterious, other-worldly and ominous, it is full of suspense and potential danger. The twilight zone takes us out of our comfort zone.

But beyond the supernatural, there’s another twilight zone that has real super-nature – it’s the time of actual twilight, dawn and dusk.

Creatures that live in the twilight zone are crepuscular. If they’re most active in the dawn, they’re matutinal. If they’re dusk dwellers, they’re vespertine. Some crepuscular creatures might also be active on a moonlit night or overcast day. Light pollution can affect crepuscular animals.

Familiar crepuscular animals are cats, rabbits, possums and mice. Also, the grey heron, Mandarin duck, fallow deer, sei whale, brown trout and mako shark. Other crepuscular critters, particular to New Zealand, are spotless crake, whio/blue duck, the light-mantled albatross, the South Island kokako (if it still exists; I hope it does) and the Auckland (Island) teal. The list of exotic crepuscular animals is long – lions and lemurs, snow hares and rattlesnakes, echidna, wombats and wallabies, mink and otters, egrets, barbary sheep, various lemurs, civets and voles. Many moths and flies are vespertine.

The twilight zone is special, but not just for its wildlife. It is also a magical hour for crepuscular sun rays, which are also known as Māui’s ropes or Buddha rays, a stairway to heaven. Ian Griffin, from Tūhura Otago Museum, describes them as “shafts of sunlight that seemingly radiate from the sun, extending across the sky like celestial fingers.” They occur when bright rays of sunlight are offset by clouds, casting shadows in the air, and can extend hundreds of kilometres. Anti-crepuscular rays are seen in the opposite direction, “Crepuscular rays’ lesser-known siblings,” according to Griffin. Anti-crepuscular rays “appear to converge towards a point in the sky directly opposite the sun.” They can be “subtle but incredibly beautiful, glowing with a lovely contrast between dark blue anti-crepuscular shadows and the pink twilight sky.”

At dusk, my garden flowers seem more vibrant, luminous. Among the twilight magic, I’ve admired three silvereye/tauhau whanau tucked up sleeping on a branch, tui challenging a ruru, and the starling flock singing a lullaby to the day. When camping, I’ve seen enigmatic spotless crakes, the last day’s light illuminating V’s from ducks paddling across the lake, sleeping whales, and a mother southern right whale nursing her calf.

There’s a rich active wildlife going on out there for those who like the gloom. With the long summer daylight hours behind us, and camping a delightful memory, the twilight zone is upon us earlier. That makes it even easier (though cooler) to experience the twilight wonders of the world. So tonight, instead of reading a book or watching tv, take a walk on the wild side and get into the zone; the twilight zone, and let me know what you find.

Postscript: After last month’s column about the loss of my chicken, Speckle, I was touched by the words of sympathy and even the offer of a replacement chicken. Thank you.