Adventures in night watching

[elainegrey]

Monday night's observations included two satellites passing south to north overhead, one flashing infrequently, the other with long stretches where the brightness grew to Venus-like intensity. I've no idea what i saw, as it appears the Iridium satellites -- most known for flares -- have almost all been retired. A few fireflies were high in the trees. Eventually i noticed strange lights near the road, almost as if people had powerful flashlights and were waving them around. I went through the house (just as my Dad called at 21:17) and out the front into the dark. As i was talking to Dad, so less sensitive to what was going around me -- when i startled a deer that went crashing off, i didn't miss it though. Turned out two sherrif's cars were pulled up down the road with their lights on.

Last night i was out later and noticed a firefly high in the pines with a pattern of four flashes, faster than one a second, then a pause, and then the four flashes. The pause seemed more like four seconds than fourteen, which doesn't match anything in particular (although if there were two males....)

I wrote up my identification here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/24832286 . I wondered if my write up would get any attention. Since it's the first observation for the species recorded in iNat (gasp) maybe i'll get some feedback?

In personal news, i find myself posting more privately these days about angsty stuff. There's one pile that is work related insecurities and procrastination, another pile about elephants where "elephants" is insufficient.