A magnetic storm hit earth and cause Northern Lights to be seen much farther south than normal. We missed this early in the week, but when we found out that more activity was to happen Wednesday night, we headed out of the city to try to find some darker skies. Well…apparently the storm was downgraded and I’m not sure that we made it into a dark enough area to have seen it regardless. But as the sunset colours disappeared, another kind of magic began. Lights began dancing over the field in front of us, circled around us: fireflies!
I have never seen this number of fireflies. They were all around us. Some were blinking their paths as they flew; others streaked through the sky. I discovered that Ontario apparently has 19 of 29 species of fireflies seen in Canada, so it’s possible that how they were lighting had to do with the type of firefly. Whatever the reason for variance, they were a lovely, unexpected spectacle.
Pointing onto road, using the window to stabilize (kind of) the shot.
The fellow put together a time-lapse that is not long enough, though long enough to show some of the wonder. The lighting, except for a few passing cars, is from the moon, half full. As it rose, the scene became brighter and brighter and as the night progressed numbers of fireflies lessened. This time-lapse began after the numbers had diminished somewhat. Now to re-do, longer, and record audio of the crickets and night sounds – possibly including a very disturbed-sounding cow. It was very dark, darker than this video suggests, we were on a deserted country road: we hoped it was merely a cow.
Fireflies from Carolyn Stampeen on Vimeo.