Fireflies !

[Nungali]

Last nite - fireflies!

Zillions of 'em!

Love it!

When there are so many, the flashes make random patterns and things going through the cloud of them .... like those pulsating strings of Christmas lights do.

They were especially thick going down the driveway that has a bamboo grove on one side and pines on the other , its like a black tunnel with disorientating magic sparkles.

Then when I got out into the protected corner of the field, they were swarming around the lee side of some bushes for wind protection. There were HEAPS of bright stars too, so I lay down and looked up through the twinkling fireflies with a starry back drop.

WOW ! More disorientation ... but of the best kind!

 

We haven't had a 'bumper' year of them for ages. Next good night I will go down to the river where the giant bamboo grove with multiple paths through it is - there are usually heaps more down there (and with a little rain and warmth) it is also lit in there by one type of glowing green ground fungus and two types of glowing toadstools; one green and one pale blue .... when they are out the same time as the fireflies ... in the bamboo grove ... at night - a m a z i n g !

 

These are exactly the same as the green ones, they grow on wood - I cant find a pic or info on the blue ones. they are more like an upright small delicate toadstool that grows out of the ground (or perhaps the bamboo mulch ? ) .

 

Edited September 25, 2014 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

I don't see fireflies here where I live. No idea why. When I was a kid living in northern Ohio there would be lots of them during their mating season. A beautiful sight to see.

[Mark Foote]

I haven't seen fireflies since I was five, looking down from the end of the street where my grandparents lived in Rockford at what must have been the Rock River.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Mark Foote

[Mark Foote]

Wish I could join you on that hike to the river, Nungali!

 

Edited September 25, 2014 by Mark Foote

[dust]

Wow. All sounds quite incredible! I've never seen them, except for in photos...and Disney movies... enjoy it!

[GrandmasterP]

Used to see glow worms when we lived in Devon.

Not seen any anywhere else though.

[soaring crane]

we get our fireflies and glow worms here around the summer solstice in June, and only for a few days. There were noticeably more this year than any year I remember in Germany. Very beautiful, enchanting :-)

 

But as a kid growing up in NY, we used to catch dozens of them every evening, all summer long, and keep them in empty mayonaise jars that would be lit up like lanterns. We always let them go free after a while because they were really something special, and so harmless, so slow and gentle, and easy to catch. We probably kept catching the same ones every night haha.

[Nungali]

Used to see glow worms when we lived in Devon. Not seen any anywhere else though.

 

If one drives up the valley here, to the end of where the road ends ( a track by then, very narrow, rock cutting one side, eroded side of the road the other - going down to the river) there are glow worms along the cutting .... galaxies of them!

 

With those green glowing wood mushrooms, when I used to live here in a caravan inside a Jasmine cave (that had spread through the trees) the mushies grew in rotten logs that defined the side of the path and the old rain soaked 'bush lounge' (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1Pflewv9ykA/TC_dMDArU6I/AAAAAAAABeM/NYRxjhmfj5M/s1600/bushStyleTwigFurniture2.jpg ) next to the caravan door. On a moonless overcast night, I could find my way in via the 'garden lights'.

[Bearded Dragon]

Fireflies.... You better be careful or they'll get canceled after their first season.

[Marblehead]

Fireflies.... You better be careful or they'll get canceled after their first season.

Oh, they get only one season whether they are careful or not.

 

And they mate only once so their first lay needs to be the best lay they ever had.

[dust]

Fireflies.... You better be careful or they'll get canceled after their first season.

 

I loved that show

[silent thunder]

Last nite - fireflies!

 

Zillions of 'em!

 

Love it!

 

When there are so many, the flashes make random patterns and things going through the cloud of them .... like those pulsating strings of Christmas lights do.

 

They were especially thick going down the driveway that has a bamboo grove on one side and pines on the other , its like a black tunnel with disorientating magic sparkles.

 

Then when I got out into the protected corner of the field, they were swarming around the lee side of some bushes for wind protection. There were HEAPS of bright stars too, so I lay down and looked up through the twinkling fireflies with a starry back drop.

 

WOW ! More disorientation ... but of the best kind!

 

We haven't had a 'bumper' year of them for ages. Next good night I will go down to the river where the giant bamboo grove with multiple paths through it is - there are usually heaps more down there (and with a little rain and warmth) it is also lit in there by one type of glowing green ground fungus and two types of glowing toadstools; one green and one pale blue .... when they are out the same time as the fireflies ... in the bamboo grove ... at night - a m a z i n g !

 

These are exactly the same as the green ones, they grow on wood - I cant find a pic or info on the blue ones. they are more like an upright small delicate toadstool that grows out of the ground (or perhaps the bamboo mulch ? ) .

 

I'd buy a ticket to that.

 

Miss those little buggers almost as much as I miss rain.

[Nungali]

Again last night ... even more ... if I leave the lights out and the doors and windows open (as it was still warm after sunset - spring has really set in ) they come inside. I left the car window open and some where in there.

 

Then I went for a walk through the bamboo ... dark criss-cross vertical shapes (the bamboo culms) with a dark pink / orange background ( post sunset sky) and fireflies weaving around.

 

I've seen a few red-bellied black snakes emerging too - one has moved into the geo-mat around the veggie garden and another large one was lying across the front path and went under the outside fishpond (I will have to remember he is there next time I pull the pot plants out for weeding).