Steve Pollick

On Sept. 22 at 8:05 p.m., it officially will become autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s all got to do with Earth’s tilt on its axis as it orbits the sun and celestial mechanics, and in a way it is a technicality, however notable. For wildlife and wild plants, however, the science is reduced to the simple fact that day-length is decreasing and that triggers significant hormonal and biochemical changes. The process is called photoperiodism in animals and phototropism in plants, but all hands react accordingly.

Welcome to Summer, season of the “Silent Light,” to play on the name of the classic Christmas hymn.
The Silent Light I’m talking about here comes from fireflies, those magical, marvelous, winged beetles that noiselessly light up summer nights with green flashes. Lightning without thunder. Here on Froggy Bottom this year, I spied the first fireflies at dusk during evenings the last week of May. Now my bottomland is a nightly star-twinkling treat with hundreds of them emitting the blinks of distinctive light.