Ghost lights (Ignis Fatuus)
We always loved taking the kids camping.
One summer night under a warm, muggy clear night sky in 2011, the time was only an hour or two into sunset. We were walking across the campground to the lake, which has a pier across it that's four feet wide.
I was gazing into the darkness of the woods beyond the lake, which was marshy with hardwoods and some pines and very few bushes. I began seeing what I thought was lightning bugs.
As we began crossing the lake I'm thinking that getting closer would help me finally catch it with my direct vision as I had lucked out on with the first couple. I began thinking I can't follow them! Which was an instant problem.
All my life I have been accustomed to lightning bugs appearing in summer here in the south; and watching and following them with my eyes.
I noticed that as I was trying to follow, "the bugs", I couldn't. Now keep in mind my first glance was caught directly with my eyes which turned immediately to peripherally noticing them. By this point I knew it was not lighting bugs and realized what I was seeing ghost lights.
I'd ran across the term researching Halloween folklore and many other things the internet of knowledge can reveal, a few years before. Anyway, there was an incredible number of flashing lights throughout the woods. They seemed to be bluish-white in color and were a pulse of magic in the darkness. There were more appearing in the first few feet off the ground than upwards. As I looked higher they were not present. By now I'm scanning my eyes all different directions and catching dozens pulsing.
I brought it to the attention of my kids and their mother who saw them. We did seem to see a similar light activity in the lake, but could have been reflections. I've also camped other times there and did not see them. JWW
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