I was perusing the internet recently (a bad habit), when I ran across something someone posted about fireflies. I don’t remember the gist of the article, but it did remind me of a magical experience I had with fireflies last summer in the mountains of eastern Arizona.
I was actually there to try to record wolves (lobos). I visited this particular spot, which shall remain secret, a couple of times last spring, but did not hear wolves either time. The fact that it was amazingly windy each time might have just made the wolf howls too difficult to hear, or maybe they were elsewhere during my visits. Anyway, on my second visit to this location in mid-June, the wild flowers abounded, the birds were singing, the elk were calving and it was just a beautiful place to be. I camped near a large meadow with a tiny stream coursing through it.
As the shadows grew long, my friend Cynthia Wolf showed up. We hiked through the meadow, listening to bird evening songs and counting elk as they emerged from the forest to start grazing in the meadow. After we got back to camp, and the stars began to appear in the sky, we were both surprised to see the intermittent flashes of a couple of fireflies. We parked ourselves near the edge of the meadow and watched as more and more flashes became visible. Most of the fireflies were flashing right near the stream, but a few blinked throughout the meadow. Watching these little micro-lights rise up a few feet, fall and blink out before they hit the ground was mesmerizing. If you look closely at the photo of the stars at the top of the page, you can see a thin line of lights below the horizon – those are the fireflies. They are hard to photograph with a long shutter-speed needed in low light, and they were moving. But I was surprised the photo came out as good as it did, although it was no where near as enthralling as being there.
I grew up out west, mostly in desert areas, so I’ve seen very few fireflies in my lifetime. I normally don’t get too excited about bugs, but bugs that produce bioluminescence and use it to create light patterns to attract mates are pretty amazing. Sadly, many of the 2100 species of fireflies worldwide are disappearing, due to habitat loss and pesticide use. Fireflies also get confused by city lights, or maybe overwhelmed is a better word. They have trouble communicating with light when the whole neighborhood is lit up.
So after watching the fireflies for a couple of hours, we retreated to our respective sleeping quarters. The wind really started to pick up, making sleep difficult. It was still windy in the morning as the birds started singing, with the wind high in the ponderosa pines creating an interesting backdrop for the dawn chorus:
“Magic is seeing wonder in nature’s every little thing, seeing how wonderful the fireflies are and how magical are the dragonflies.”
― Ama H. Vanniarachchy