Been a While

It has been a pretty busy summer with lots of outside adventures! We have been doing lots of hiking on the trails in our back yard, and going for walks in our neighborhood. The leaves are starting to change and I am starting to get very excited to take some great fall photos.

The other night I was outside and noticed tiny green things glowing in the grass. I picked one up and it was some kind of insect. Of course I got my two children out of bed (at 9:30 on a school night) to show them. When they first got outside there was nothing glowing, and they thought I was loosing my mind. But after staring at the ground for about a minute we started to see them glowing in the grass. The longer we watched the more we saw. It was pretty magical having these green glowing things all around our feet. I was so glad I took the risk of having a very grumpy morning to show my children another amazing thing in nature. We have done a little research and believe that they were female glow worms that are actually a type of beetle. We have been out every night since watching them. (Not so late though)

This is a picture of what one looked like. I didn't take this picture, I found it doing some research from the Portland Bird Observatory and Field Center website.

The picture was taken by Martin Cade.

As you look at this imagine about 20 of them glowing all around you on the ground. It was pretty amazing!