I went to check on the fireflies this season. But I didn’t see any. Instead lots of moths. At first, I thought it might have been still too light, but it was already dark enough for me to miss and destroy a snail shell. Bummer. Maybe it was too wet tonight. Although, it’s probably just another or two weeks until my glowing friends will finally show up.
In the beginning, I passed two beautiful deer on the edge of the forest. They were just ten meters away, but didn’t run off, really cool. :-) I kept on walking. Before I eventually left the woodland, a frog or toad crossed my path. It was very dark by then, though, so all I could see was a black blob.
Back in town, the street lamps on the first third were all turned off for some reason. I was already glad that I will reach home without getting blinded this time, but unfortunately, the other lamps were all operational.
@lyse having seeing, and played with fireflies as a child I envy you. We have none around here. Children have no idea what a firefly is. I mean, they do, but vague, and based on videos and telly.
After the last two days were dry and a tad warmer, I left the house a few minutes later to check again. It was similar to last time. One deer on the pasture that didn’t run off, it was roughly 15-20 meters away, a bit further than the day before yesterday. Probably even the same individual. Many moths, zero fireflies and another two deer on the mown meadow when I left the forest. Those were closer to 50 and 100 meters away and evenutally escaped into the woods. The same street lamps were off, too.
The lovely smell of cut grass was in the air. Venus and Jupiter reflected brightly in the West. What a stroll, I call that a great success. :-)
@bender Hell yeah, we’ve seen the first fireflies of the season! \o/ \o/ \o/ How cool! Maybe 50-70 in total. Gotta check every evening now. :-)
The sunset wasn’t too bad when I left the house to pick up my mate: https://lyse.isobeef.org/abendhimmel-2026-06-17/
It’s Venus over the moon. And Jupiter is further diagonally down between the clouds.
@lyse take a small video, pretty please! I would love the see them shining in the fields! On the pics, 1 is mine, all mine! 🥰
I found my tripod and headed into the woods. There was a ton of glow. \o/ The fireflies were everywhere, super cool. It looked so amazing, especially with all the flying boys. There was one amazing spot in particular, I had 80-100 individuals in my view at once. Absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, the mozzies were also delighted about my visit.
I tried my best, but it’s impossible to capture anything on film with my equipment. The fireflies are just way too dim. In the end, I managed to get some very bright girls in the bush. That’s the best I could do, but still really bad. Sorry @bender. :-(
https://lyse.isobeef.org/gluehwuermchen-2026-06-19/
And no idea what the heck is going on with the CSS there. Anyway. Garbage to trash, seems fitting. ;-)
@lyse the movie gives me a glimpse, not that bad. Thank you for capturing it, mate!
@lyse Oh wow, nice. 😲 Never seen those in the wild myself.
@lyse … I also meant to comment on the very neat and stylish Play Button, but forgot to do so. 😅😅😅
@bender @movq Ta! I don’t know about regional differences. But at the moment, they first start slowly appearing at around 21:45 to 22:00. And then it gets more and more. You’ve got about an hour until it’s over.
People often say that they are in and over the meadows close to the edges of the forest. But at least over here, there are literally magnitudes more in the forest. So far, I’ve maybe seen thirty, fourty (30-40) fireflies outside at the meadows, but one or two thousand (1000-2000) inside. Exactly like last year.
They like a little bit openish spots in the forest. Not like a clearing, but if you can see ~10 meters from the path into the woodland, chances are that fireflies will pop up. But if it’s really thick brush, the odds are very slim. The hotspots also slowly wander around over time. So, I just keep on walking after a few minutes of stopping to enjoy the show.
How truly wonderful! I went out tonight and the first thing I noticed was the temperature drop. It felt actually quite pleasing. What a welcome surprise, I didn’t expect that at all. It was warmer in the forst than between the fields. The tiniest breeze helped to cool off the surroundings I think. Right now, the temperature shows 23°C. It’s supposed to reach 18°C at 5 in the morning before it rapidly shoots through the sky again.
When I left the house I even saw the very end of a nice sunset. A bat was around, too. The several thousand fireflies delivered a fantastic show. It’s such a pity that I cannot show this to you. :-(
There were many frogs or toads around. Luckily, the light tan gravel road made for a good constrast to the darker hopping amphibians. So, I spotted them just in time. No animals were harmed.
The moon was out and lit up the scenery. I was perfectly chasing my own shadow for several hundred meters on a forest road. I had the moon right in my back. That moon light shadow felt magical. <3
It must have set a new record on picking up spider webs along the way. The threads around arms and legs always feel quite yucky. People were blasting music somewhere in town. You could here that noise in the entire forest. I found that rather annoying. All street lamps are operational again, so I got already blinded right at the entrance to the town. But other than that, this was a very nice evening stroll. Totally recommended. Already looking forward to tomorrow. :-)
@lyse Sounds lovely! (I think. Not sure about spider webs and such. 😅)
I woke up to 26°C this morning. 🥵
I had a real blast in the woods again. There were a bit more fireflies on the meadows, but still no comparison to all the shows in the forest with several thousands.
The fucking mozzies got me, too.