‘Tis peak firefly season here on the Brink. Since moving here I have seen more firefly displays than anywhere I have ever lived and wonder if Mother Nature is trying her best to outdo any Fourth of July celebrations in the area. I turn off all the house lights, let my eyes adjust to the darkness and then Cocoa and I go out in the sun room and watch the razzle dazzle of the mating rituals of these wondrous little critters. I wonder if Cocoa is at all enthralled with them, but I think her attentions go to fuzzy wabbits rather than blinking insects. I’ve never seen a glow worm, but I think that’s what the larval form is called, and they also glow in the dark. I’ve never gone out digging at night so wouldn’t know. During the day these little lamps have no special qualities but they are not surpassed at night.
As I watch, some of the fireflies fly past horizontally and leave a comet-like glowing tail behind them. Other lights pass squiggling in the night leaving little commas in the air. Sometimes I try to follow a single light and I try to guess where it will blink again further away from its last blink. I understand the females are on the ground blinking their hearts delight and males are above signaling their desires.
All this verbiage is way too fancy for such a simple, down-to-earth kind of show. There are hundreds of them outside my house and its times like these I wish I had grandchildren or youngsters in my life to take outside late at night hunting – or should I say easy pickings – for fireflies to put in a jar for them to watch as they fell asleep. I did this ritual when I was a child and my children did it once or twice when they were little. At our previous home the fireflies weren’t quite so plentiful and it seemed the mosquitoes way outnumbered them so hunting fireflies there was an on-going battle which drew blood and resulted in many itches – not worth the battle. I’m sure mosquitoes are here, too, but the great number of blinking prey would easily fill a bottle. It’s so exciting as a child to be awakened late at night and to run out in sneakers and PJ’s to capture a night light. It’s so difficult to add another blinker to the bottle when there already are several in the jar without letting any of prisoners get away. Maybe Cocoa and I will go out tonight and relive my childhood.
