Fireflies
Fireflies
A couple of nights ago Norma noticed something that neither of us had seen much of in a number of years – fireflies! We have seen a few in the yard here in Port Maitland, but this particular night there were quite a few.
The next night I went out camera in hand, with my tripod and a manual release – and I got the image above. It’s actually a combination of 8 twenty second images, blended so you can see the little dots of light that are resting fireflies, and the streaks of light that are those flying around. It was a fun experiment to try to photograph, and I’ll work on this some more if the fireflies cooperate.
As a kid, we used to see them all the time and catch the “lightning bugs” as we called them and put them in jars as a bedside night light. Now, they don’t seem as numerous, but they still excite the kid in many of us, with the magical flashing of the little green lights as they flit among the grasses out back.
In reality a beetle, they are related to glow-worms in their bioluminescence. There are about 2000 species of fireflies I learned, and many have been reduced in numbers due to the reduction in nectar bearing plants they require for feeding.
A most entertaining thing to be doing – wandering around the yard looking for the biggest bunch of fireflies, while also looking up at the stars.
Nature’s wonderous beauty – all around us!
