More fireflies

They're flashing from ground level to canopy again this evening. Magical.

I poked around to see if I could find a decent image to share, with no luck (either highly enhanced images or not very good ones).

Certainly my camera(s) can't do justice to the biological flashing in the dark, programmed by selection to attract mates. It's lovely to watch and an unexpected summer treat.

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Fireflies

It's not easy to get photos of fireflies, but just imagine their flashing from ground level to canopy.

We've been treated to evening displays for days now. Lovely, and unexpected.

Normally, we'd have sucessional waves, from ground to canopy over weeks, not days - so it's a treat to see the night sky full of flashes.

Years ago, in Maryland, we saw similar views in the canopy forest below the house we rented in summer (while during field work). Nice to see that again in our urban ravine forest behind the house.

 

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Nocturnal symphony and fireflies!

At home in the Southeast after a wonderful trip to Oregon, visiting fabulous gardens during the Garden Bloggers Fling, and having a week prior to explore some of the mountains and the coast -- what's striking me this evening (as I've started looking through my MANY photos of gardens and natural areas) are the night sounds this evening -- out the open windows.

It was quite warm here today, but we're off again in a couple of days, so turning on the mini-split doesn't seem necessary, especially as it's cooling down again tomorrow.

The nocturnal symphony is in full swing.

Field crickets, tree frogs, and cicadas are producing a wonderful "welcome home" night song -- which isn't part of the experience of western states.

The flashes of fireflies are part of the the gallery forest view, too.  Magic.

I've brought back with me so many visual memories of remarkable gardens, big and small, packed with special plants from all over the world.  I love the amazing artistic flair and aesthetic qualities in these gardens.

But I'm really glad to be home, too, in the Southern Appalachians, with the tree frog and cricket seranade.

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Fireflies

It's always a joy to see fireflies -- here in the Carolinas, it's June when we see most of them. 

I don't know that much about fireflies -- just that the males flash to attract mates; the periodicity is meaningful; and different species flash at ground level, mid-level, and up in the canopy.

We had a colleague years ago who studied them in the Smokies. He'd head off in June to lie on the forest floor at night and do counts and monitoring. (He had been a city dweller before we knew him, so he seemed an unlikely person to be doing this kind of research!)

Fireflies are definitely seasonal, and hmm, a quick google search brought up this; clearly fireflies are impacted by human disturbance as so many other organisms have been.

But they're still relatively common in the Eastern U.S. and elsewhere in humid areas of the world, apparently.

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A firefly June

We've seen almost as many fireflies this year than we used to see in the summers we spent as (young) researchers near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, many years ago.

They're flashing again tonight, at all canopy levels.  It's probably the tail end of the mating season; they're definitely not as as abundant as earlier in June.  Fireflies are a seasonal component of living in the eastern U.S.  -  special, to be sure.

It's certainly been a firefly June in the mountains of western North Carolina!

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