For the Firefly Report

Last night as I was closing things up, I noticed several fireflies from the back porch. I remembered the posts here about fireflies.

 First firefly sighted last night!  

 June 14, 2017 by Jean Raber  50 comments including much conversation about snakes, trees, climate change and Anglo-Saxons! 

Normally Margaret Steinfels starts this off, but the fireflies are early in Michigan this year. Just a few last night. They usually peak around July 4. Hopefully mosquito spraying has not decimated them.

Nature observations are an anodyne to the political idiocy. No matter how bad humans mess up, the creatures do their creature thing and the moon and stars continue their predictable phases.

God has given us a beautiful world to live in that offers perspective and restoration.

Margaret: Back in NYC at the moment...so no fireflies. Glad Michigan has been lit up.

Tom: Florida life as usual. Zika mosquitoes are back. Also chickungunga or however you spell it, Eastern equine encephalitis, dengue fever, etc. Another summer in Paradise.

Stanley: I don't have to move to FL, Tom. Thanks to the CO2, FL is moving to PA.

Katherine: Seriously, would anyone miss Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus if they went extinct?

Crystal: I've still never seen a firefly. Maybe they don't live out west

Katherine: Have only seen one firefly here yet, and he was in the house. I was hoping the cats wouldn't catch him, it wouldn't do either them or the bug any good.

Jean, you are right about the beautiful world. We get so focused on the bad stuff that we forget to notice the beautiful things.

Can we talk about Michigan Again 

July 16, 2017 Margaret 17 comments Much about Michigan only passing mention of Fireflies

Margaret:  Fireflies have probably flamed out. So let's ask Jean about "rust belt" Michigan.

Turned Up and Tuned In

 July 3, 2019 Margaret  9 comments

Happy to report the fireflies have returned. Cold evenings, sometimes in the forties, were worrisome. But last night and tonight they are out and about glowing in the darkness.

Jimmy Mac:  Haven't seen and since 1962.

Jean: Hardly any fireflies here, though this week has been hovering around 90 with humidity at 70 percent, and looks to be hotter tomorrow and Friday. A couple of weeks ago, it barely made it into the 60s and 70s.

Jack: Glad to see the firefly report is back. I saw my first ones about a week ago when I was out after sunset, and thought of the firefly report.

Jim: We sat on a friend's backyard deck last night, from which point we were able to watch their town's fireworks show without the hassle of crowds and parking. While waiting for the festivities to begin, I saw the first fireflies of the season. I thought they were at least as impressive as the fireworks.

If there were fireflies, I missed them  

July 13, 2020 Margaret 19 comments including a comet discussion.

We have finally come to the cabin in the middle of nowhere. The evening of July 8, there was one practicing fire fly blinking in the bushes. There having been a downpour, I assumed the mass of them were huddled in the grass. Not so. That was the first and last firefly on display. 

Their high point here is usually the week-end of July 4 with displays thereafter for a few more weeks.  Were they here (upstate New York) as early as Katherine reported in early June from Nebraska(?), and are already gone....OR??  Alas.

Jean: Plenty still here in Michigan, though they peaked about a week ago. Watched them last night. Temps have been extremely warm--high 80s/low 90s for most of the month. Hot weather seems to keep them around longer.

Katherine: Glad you get to spend some time at the cabin.

We are still having a few fireflies light up. They didn't really have a peak this year, but have been showing up a few at a time for a month. Maybe they are distancing.

Jim :I haven't noticed any around here. I'll have to ask my wife - she's a better noticer than I am. 

It would make me feel ill if climate change is having an effect on fireflies.

Just checking back. I asked my wife. "Yes, we have fireflies this year. They are all over. I caught one earlier tonight." If they want me to notice them, they need to come into the house one evening and fly in front of the television screen.

Tom: Birds, all kinds year around in Florida. But here is the thing about fireflies: You have to be outside after dark. At that time, mosquitoes abound carrying various things, like Zika, West Nile disease, Eastern equine encephalitis and dengue fever ("break-bone disease"). I may have missed a couple. You get the point. Eleven cases of one of them in Miami already this year.

Jimmy Mac: Out here on the Left Coast we don't have fireflies, at least in and around the SF Bay Area. I have fond memories of seeing them in rural Wisconsin when I was a kid. We, of course, caught them, pulled the lights off and put them on our fingers, pretending that we were wearing diamonds. (I wonder if that caused those flies pain? Definitely a subject for Masters or PhD research.)