Saturday 23 May 2009

Mayflies in May



Before dinner on Friday Brother-who-Blogs and I walked around Dunkeld and onto the bridge over the River Tay. A few days ago Daughter-who-takes-Photos and I were talking about never having seen the mayflies rise. I have seen individual mayflies before but never seen them rise.


Now I have!!! They were rising from the Tay in dense clouds which were extremely difficult to photograph. This one gives a vague idea of the density.


And this one captured a couple of individual mayflies. How many millions of them there were I could not begin to estimate but the bridge (over the water itself) is 464 feet long and they were in dense clouds all along it. Assuming they were the same along the rest of the river - and they were at least a few hundred yards down the bank - the numbers were phenomenal. I have never seen anything quite like it.



 

8 comments:

  1. That first photo is very nice...the mayflies (yuck) but great catch, anyway.

    I just asked Ray what Mayflies were, exactly...I was thinking they might be something like the noseeums that we have here...little black flies that bite, leaving a bit of an itch. Annoying insects, the noseeums are.

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  2. How wonderful for you, just the right time there and a good camera and operator there to catch the moment!!
    Terrific shots.
    Love Granny

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  3. That last shot is pretty amazing and the first is gorgeous. Happy you got to see this event. You do seem quite excited about it.

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  4. They look like a squadron of planes.

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  5. Where do they rise from? The plants along the water? And are they really a fly, or a moth? Okay, I have to go look...

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  6. Is there a poem or a saying about when the mayflies rise?

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  7. Fantastic! I'm so jealous, but pleased that you got to see them. Only happens like 1 or 2 days a year, doesn't it. Very lucky!

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  8. What great photos! I just came across your blog today for the first time.

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