"Courtship" Photo Prints

Photography of Synchronous Fireflies in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Every June in the Great Smoky Mountains, fireflies have their mating season. The males and females flash in synchrony to attract and identify each other. It's an incredibly rare event because they are the only species of firefly that sync up their flashes, and their activity is concentrated in very few places in the world.

Tens of thousands of people want to flock to this area to see them. But since their mating habitat is fragile, the park service only allows 100 cars inside the "official" viewing place for these little lightning bugs.

There are a few unofficial locations to spot them. One such place is Cade's Cove. Most of the firefly activity here are the fireflies you might see in your yard on a summer evening. 

So what's the big deal? In this field, there were thousands of fireflies winking on and off.

The synchronous ones are almost impossible to pick out. But every once and awhile, I saw the tell tale string of dots on my viewfinder to indicate a synchronous firefly blinking in a pattern.

After a half hour or so, I noticed a little light on some of the tall grasses near me. I set up my camera and tripod, hoping to get her light with some of the yellow flashes far in the background.

But then a male flitted past her and under the fence, blinking his light in an attempt to attract her attention. It's easy to lose small moments like this in Elkmont campground when there's loads of synchronous flashing back and forth. it certainly is impressive. But it was nice to see the event boiled down to the individual level.

One male. One female. Doing what all of nature strives to do - reproduce.