When I was a kid, they used to be everywhere when they were in season, even in the city. But I hadn’t seen any for years until night before last one flew onto my porch. Has some insecticide done them in? Is it some natural cycle in the environment. Could it be climate change?

When I lived in Oak Ridge they were so plentiful the labs used to pay the town’s kids for them by the quart–the scientists were studying the phosphorescent chemicals because they were an enzyme-triggered luminescent protein that was a highly energy-efficient light source.

That’s not the only insect that seems to have gotten scarce lately. The Giant Waterbugs seem to have disappeared, and I don’t miss them a bit, they had a painful sting and when they were in mating season and flying around horny it was scary going out at night.

Palmetto bugs and houseflies seen to be drastically reduced in numbers. Hmmm. If something is killing them off, we’re all in trouble. And one of my favorites, the oleander moth, a terrifying (but totally harmless) creature that resembles The Wasp From Hell, seems to have vanished, although oleanders are as common as ever.

Hummingbirds used to be common when I was a kid, but I believe they’re extinct in Florida now. Are they still common out where you live, TB? When I lived there in the 80s everybody on our block had a hummingbird feeder. Songbirds used to be common in Florida too, you hardly see any anymore. THe number of birds seems about the same, but the number of species seems to have dropped. Only the blue jays and mockingbirds are still common, and the population of grackles and starlings has exploded. THe swamp and wading birds seem to be flourishing, but I live near the “Glades, now. The bats disappeared for decades, but they seem to be making a comeback. But the nighthawks seem to have abandoned us, and only recently, too.

I’ve mentioned that the Carolina Anole (the native species of fence lizard) has been driven out of town by Caribbean imports like the Cuban Anole, a process that I’ve been monitoring since I was a kid. But the ground-dwelling curlytail, also a Caribbean import, has had a population explosion since I saw my first one only 10 years ago. They are taking over, but I don’t think they compete with the shrub-living anoles, they are in different niches (unless the curlytails eat the anole egg clutches, from under the leaf litter. If so, the Anoles are doomed.

There are patterns and rhythms in nature. Some are natural, some we influence. But even in the city you can see them. It’s the earth breathing.