There are several things we don't like about Wisconsin [1]: the winters are wet and slushy, the summers are humid and muggy, most of our friends and family are far away, ceiling lighting doesn't come standard, there are no mountains, etc. But…
Wisconsin has fireflies![2]
Unfortunately, the video doesn't do it justice. About half an hour after this it was too dark to take video [3], but there were clouds of fireflies swarming in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum (a forest right behind our apartment complex). The way the fireflies kept inside the forest made it seem surreal and fantastic. It was like the boundary between two different worlds. Unfortunately there were also swarms of hungry mosquitoes, which detered me from staying out very long.
So far I've seen at least three different species of firefly [4], based on appearance and glow pattern. At least two made an appearance in the video; a third, which makes three quick flashes, is a little rarer. Since Leann won't let me pin them and keep them forever, I haven't bothered identifying them to species.
Notes:
[1] See my post Move to Wisconsin.
[2] Technically Utah has fireflies, now, too (see here), but I doubt they're as spectacular as Wisconsin's.
[3] I tried several evenings to get a decent video, but it was always too dark. I even went out with my butterfly net and caught about half a gross thinking I could take a video of the glowing fireflies crawling around inside the bottle. But, as it turns out, they prefer to do their glowing while flying. Since they can't fly for very long inside a bottle, they don't bother glowing. So I let them all go.
[4] Well, I've actually also seen a non-glowing species here, but I'm (understandably) not as excited about that one.
Wisconsin has fireflies![2]
Unfortunately, the video doesn't do it justice. About half an hour after this it was too dark to take video [3], but there were clouds of fireflies swarming in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum (a forest right behind our apartment complex). The way the fireflies kept inside the forest made it seem surreal and fantastic. It was like the boundary between two different worlds. Unfortunately there were also swarms of hungry mosquitoes, which detered me from staying out very long.
So far I've seen at least three different species of firefly [4], based on appearance and glow pattern. At least two made an appearance in the video; a third, which makes three quick flashes, is a little rarer. Since Leann won't let me pin them and keep them forever, I haven't bothered identifying them to species.
Notes:
[1] See my post Move to Wisconsin.
[2] Technically Utah has fireflies, now, too (see here), but I doubt they're as spectacular as Wisconsin's.
[3] I tried several evenings to get a decent video, but it was always too dark. I even went out with my butterfly net and caught about half a gross thinking I could take a video of the glowing fireflies crawling around inside the bottle. But, as it turns out, they prefer to do their glowing while flying. Since they can't fly for very long inside a bottle, they don't bother glowing. So I let them all go.
[4] Well, I've actually also seen a non-glowing species here, but I'm (understandably) not as excited about that one.
I'd love to see some fireflies! I have a friend who lives on the outskirts of Brigham who insists that we do have them here, but I've never seen them.
ReplyDeleteAs for ceiling lighting coming standard...Mike and I have only lived in one place (out of 4) where there was ceiling lighting in the living room. All the other rooms have had it, though.