Every year in my backyard the approach of summer brings a magical show. The night becomes more and more active with light emitting bugs. Most of us call them fireflies, or lightning bugs. I really enjoy sitting out and watching them. Over the past week I feel like it has reached peak firefly time around my place this week.
The build up to this years show has been a bit odd to me. Around the last new Moon in June I would see more fireflies before it was truly dark than later in the night. Around the start of Nautical Twilight there would be large numbers of fireflies hovering closer to the ground in the backyard. Like they have just woke up and are getting ready for the night. A few hours later when its really dark I would see far less fireflies lighting up the sky.
Were the fireflies moving off to a secret meeting place? When I first noticed this pattern I started looking around in neighbor fields and the wooded areas. They had about the same amount of flashing bugs as I did. I never did solve this mystery but this past week I have been seeing more fireflies at night. Usually concentrated in my woods. This leads me to think I’m seeing the highest number right now, the peak of their activity this year.