Illuminated view on ethical stalking

Time, we are told, waits for no man. And for me, neither does progress. I seem to be constantly playing catchup with ever more sophisticated gadgetry, most recently with handheld thermal imagers. I became familiar with the technology during my RAF days many years ago; it was expensive, specialised equipment used in military applications. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the use of thermals would become commonplace when stalking.

It was almost 20 years ago — after a fruitless evening watching a large expanse of young Christmas trees — that I thought it would be great if I could see into the trees and detect the deer that I knew were there.

So it’s strange that I had such grave reservations about using a thermal imager for stalking when the opportunity arose. My feeling was that