They're here!
It was balmy-cool as twilight came to a close. I took my bicycle out for a quick mile (just under -- the Monon trail is closed after dark, patrolled at the "downtown Broad Ripple" end by officers with no sense of humor about exposing oneself to a known trouble-spot, so I stayed on the roads). About once per block, a firefly would respond to my strobing bike headlight with a series of gentle, slow, look-at-me flashes, hovering hopefully just off the street.
Yeah, yeah, they're just bugs -- but they're kinda magical, too. Little floating, self-directed flashes of light? It's a wonder!
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
10 comments:
They have been here for a month. They are truly something to behold.
Seems like, in years gone by, on June nights the fireflies were thick as thieves.
For the last few years (I'm not saying it was co-incident with Fox's ill conceived cancellation of the best show ever) there seemed to be less and less every year.
I'm glad to say, this year it seems like they're back in force again.
we don't have 'em out here. :-( In fact, I referred to lightning bugs and fireflies and had people who grew up out here look at me like I was nuts. Poor left coasties...
I remember going camping in the UP and chasing them, helping kids catch them in jars to sell to 3M for bioluminescence research. (The pay was too low to try and actually sell any myself...)
That's where chemlights come from.
And here I was, digging through the closet for my brown coat.
Insects, not space ships.
Got it.
The other night the Mrs and I held hands on the back porch and watched the fireflies in the dark.
One of my favorite things about summer, since I was about five.
We don't have them here in Utah, so I've never seen them other than in pictures.
Hailing from the heavily forested parts of the North-'Wets', I was subject to much mirthful ridicule from extended family on a recent road trip due to being overly reactionary to flashes of fireflies alongside the road as dusk eased toward dark.
I told them "Laugh all you want...where I come from we don't have fireflies, and flashes on the side of the road at night can KILL you!"
To prove my point, three days after I got home I sent a local news article about a State Trooper who kissed a tree 'at speed' after ricocheting off an elk .
Holy Hell!! You have Lightning Elks?
Glowelks would just suck. All we have are hooved rats, who refuse to announce themselves in any way before smashing into cars. Upside: less massive than an elk. Downside: still too big to be anything you'd want to run into.
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