This is the seventh post in this limited series of excursions taken on early weekday mornings in the month of June. If you missed the reason I ventured out so early, you can read about it here.
This excursion was on June 23rd and began at beautiful Bishop Park in downtown Wyandotte. We had three days in a row of coolish weather, so I got out all three mornings. On this morning, I headed for a stroll on the Bishop Park boardwalk and wended my way through downtown Wyandotte to BASF Park. There was nothing remarkable about BASF Park, so this post will focus on fishflies and Biddle Avenue.
Fishflies are an annual occurrence here in the Midwest and parts of Canada. There is a siege of them that erupts in mid-to-late June. The fishfly larvae, which have been living beneath the surface of large bodies of water like lakes and rivers for several years, suddenly emerge and though they only live a few days after hatching, they are annoying to be sure. But, even though we tolerate ‘em here in Southeast Michigan, the upside to this phenomenon is that the appearance of fishflies means our ecosystem is in balance. Well yay us, because it seems we have climate change issues and weather worries, so we’re happy the fishflies are thriving.
We never experience fishflies at Council Point Park as the Ecorse Creek does not produce them, but just five miles away at Bishop Park, you’re sure to see swarms of them. They won’t harm you and they may even alight on an arm or a hand. You’d not even notice their flimsy bodies clinging to your clothes. I’ve had that happen before – now if a spider or centipede landed on me … well, that’s a whole ‘nother story. Fishflies have even been known to cause traffic accidents when swarms of them descend onto roadways causing a slick and greasy surface. Also of note, smooshed fishflies smell fishy. Yes – ugh!
The media is all over the annual fishflies’ arrival.
Just look on any news media site during the fishfly siege and you’re sure to see videos or still shots of thousands of fishflies clinging to ATM machine, buildings, boardwalks or boats. So, I decided to capture some images of these icky-sticky creatures along the Bishop Park boardwalk and the buildings on Biddle Avenue.
I’ve actually seen more fishflies at one time, so I could have come back, but this gives you a flavor for the fishfly dilemma. They are not a dilemma to everyone – in New Baltimore, Michigan they hold an annual Fishfly Festival to honor the little buggers.
Once I decided I had my fill of fishfly photos, I continued my morning meander through downtown Wyandotte. It was early and most offices or stores weren’t open, save for the coffee shops or a bustling crowd at the drive-thru at McDonald’s.
The City was slow to change to their Summer flags.
This year the City of Wyandotte turned 150.
I guess masks are permitted but were they before COVID-19?
Next week will be the finale in this series of early morning excursions, but no worries, there were plenty of other excursions that took me out and about to my favorite haunts.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
I never heard of fishflies before. Thank you for the photos of them.
It’s fine to have out-of-season posts. Our minds are supple.
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They are light as a feather and when I was at the diner, it was painted all white.
Even though we were five miles from the River, they were open all night with big spotlights – the diner was covered with fishflies every morning. That’s good Anne – there will be plenty of Summery posts as we chug along through Fall!
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Thank you for the pictures and education about fishflies. I had never seen or heard of them. I imagine they are annoying but at least they don’t bite and their shape is actually kind of pretty in an artistic sort of way. Apparently stinky and slippery, though! Love the 5th picture of one where you can see all the veins in its wings. The totem pole is very impressive. It was fun seeing all the signs and flowers in downtown Wyandotte.
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You’re welcome Barbara – I was hoping to see wall-to-wall fireflies to use in this post, but these few give you an idea of how clingy they are and how they won’t hurt you. I just pluck them off my hands and/or my clothes. I thought they are pretty too – very delicate looking, almost like a dragonfly. Wyandotte is a fun town and it would be great to live near downtown Wyandotte as they always have something going on, as well as many quaint shops and eateries too and close to the River.
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Never heard of fishflies here but we have plenty bugs of our own. I did training at a training center for a company a while back and one wall of the building was built into a bank. Every fall they would get swarms of cinch bugs that come in. Thousands. We couldn’t set up the food counter because they liked that. I would get there early to scoot as many out as I could. It didn’t matter what the exterminator did, they appeared every September.
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Fishflies are a pain, but don’t invoke fear in me like spiders and centipedes that really bug me, pardon the pun. When I worked at the diner in the Summer on school break, since it was painted white and open 24/7, they’d be covered all over the diner when I came to work at 7:00 a.m. – my boss was frantic they’d fly in and get onto food! I had to look up cinch bugs – I wouldn’t want them around either!
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I like the bugs that stay outside! 🙂
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Me too! I turned on the hall light this morning and through bleary eyes saw a centipede running down the hall. Not a good way to start the day!
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The fish flies were a new thing for me too. I am not a fly fisherman, but these look like the models for many of the lures that fly fishermen use.
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They are quite delicate looking JP. I have a friend who is a fly fisherman and he makes his own flies for himself and sells them. It’s a hobby for him during the Winter months. You are right – those lures do look just like these fishflies.
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So wonderful photography 👌🌷🙏 some photos first time seeing Best Wishes 👍🏻🙏❤️😊
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Glad you liked the photos Thattamma. The fishflies are our annual phenomenon here – I wish I’d had a morning when they coated the entire building … maybe next year?
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I’m so happy to read your this lovely reply message 🙏🌷
The photos very rare to see, thank you for sharing 👏😊
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You’re so welcome Thattamma! Glad you liked them.
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At first I read “fish flies” as “fireflies”. I wondered why you would merely tolerate fireflies. Then I read more carefully and understood! 😊 I wonder if they are similar to mayflies. We get them by the droves in late spring.
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Yes, they are similar to mayflies Laurie and people use the two terms interchangeably here. You get them in droves like we do and this is really nothing compared to when they swarm en masse onto a wall and just cling there!
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Fishflies are also new to me. They remind me of a time in high school when I went camping with my parents at Lake Barkley in Kentucky. There was a TVA dam nearby and I started walking across a field to reach the stream and suddenly realized every plant, every blade of grass was black – completely covered with insects like those you show. I totally freaked out and ran for my life!
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When I worked at the diner, it was painted white and open 24/7 and I worked Summers/weekends during school. I’d come into work at 7:00 a.m. and the fishflies were attracted to the white diner and the spotlights, even though we were not near the River. As a person who detests bugs, I can imagine you seeing them everywhere and not knowing what they were and fleeing. It would be as scary as a locust invasion!
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I remember seeing Fish flies down in my home town of Peterborough Ontario! I bet the fish love them! We’d also get June bugs which my father wasn’t very attracted to!
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Yes, the fish love them Wayne and when they are in their larvae stage beneath the water, the fish like them that way too. Oh, those June bugs are really ugly – I don’t blame your father for not liking them. We never got the 7-year cicada invasion that was predicted and discussed by bug experts for months before it was to happen. We have cicadas buzzing in the neighborhood all Summer long – ugly buggers!
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Never seen a Cicada before and that’s just fine by me!
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They’re ugly buggers and in a group they “sing” … a buzzing noise that is nerve-racking if you’re outside a long time. Here, have a listen:
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I’ve heard them……..on TV but not in person.
Thankfully!
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When there are a lot of them, it is like a chorus singing in the trees. That’s one thing that gets on your nerves if you’re outside a long period of time, like working in the yard, but the worst if when they shed their exoskeleton and you find pieces of discarded “shells” hanging on flowers or tree bark. They especially liked shedding on my rose bushes and I’d go outside and see shells hanging all over the place.
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Those “shells” do look very alien don’t they!
Imagine some people collect them and freeze them for eating! I say bona petite!
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When we were expecting the cicada invasion this Summer, social media was full of recipes and how-to ideas on how to cook and enjoy them. No thanks!
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Your fish flies look like our “Mayflies” but darker. our’s come out for a short while in our chalk streams. I googled Mayfly and found this reference. “Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern U.S.; also up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera.”
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I was wondering if you would find them in Titchfield Haven Andy. They are rather creepy looking but otherwise harmless. I’d much rather see them than a spider or centipede. Ours only last two or three days after hatching and the whole batch of them is gone within a week or two.
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Great pics, Linda! 👍😊
We call them Mayflies here, and it used to be that our house was covered in them at certain times of the year here on the river. Not any longer. 😒 Apparently, pollution (especially from Roundup residue from the local farmers, i suspect) has taken its toll on them. Now you just see a handful. What a sad and major change over just a few short years. We human beings!
The seagulls remind me that the deep-meaning song Thick as a Brick, by Jethro Tull, that contains the lyrics of:
The legends, worded in ancient tribal hymn, lie cradled in the seagull’s call, and all the promises they made are ground beneath the sadist’s fall.
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Interestingly, for all the freighter traffic on the Detroit River, the water is very clean. There are places near the shoreline that the water is so clear you can see the rocks – that always surprises me. Roundup residue is bad for everyone. When I visited the alpaca farm a couple of years ago, the owner stopped having bee hives as all the bees in his hives were dying from local farmers spraying their crops. Today, in Detroit, the owner of a huge marijuana grow operation and store was bemoaning a large crop was contaminated and unusable because someone had evidently used a weed whacker on a lawn that used Roundup, then used it on/near the marijuana plants. I shudder to think of the damage to the shoreline and wildlife, feathered or finned, from this SoCal oil spill.
Glad you liked the photos Tom. The seagulls make me smile when they tilt their heads back to screech wildly – you can hear them all the way down the boardwalk.
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Seagulls, just like crows and ravens, are very intelligent birds. I love all three! (Saw a lot of squirrels today as i was visiting my mother-in-law outdoors at her assisted living place. Goodness, the squirrels sure made a lot of noise and were hurling acorns all over the place! I need to buy some peanuts to give to them for treats. 😉
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Yes, people don’t give them credit, calling them “birdbrains” – not true at all. I remember you had the bird feeder outside your mother-in-laws window at the assisted living facility at one time. The squirrels will love you forever. There is a Black Walnut tree in the Park and sometimes the squirrels will pass up peanuts as they have a green one crammed into their mouth. That’s great you are out and about already – so you are driving already too?
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Yes, Linda, i am already driving no problem… and am doing 12 minutes a day on the Schwinn Airdyne using both legs (and arms too).
Yes, birds are not stupid. Yesterday i told Tweetie and Scarlet that maybe i would buy some Halloween decorations when i would go to the store the next day (which was today). Scarlet got excited, and said “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!” When i brought in the decorations today, Scarlet immediately did her happy dance. 😊
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That is amazing Tom – you must have a good physical therapist or they gave you a good regimen to be driving and on the exercise bike already. I’m surprised. You’re already glad you had it done then. Next … go back to flying those big kites you sent a video of one time.
Tweetie and Scarlet are so intelligent – you’ve mentioned other things they do and say. That’s funny – I hope you decorate their room too. I used to love watching the videos of Einstein the African Gray. He had quite the vocabulary and cute antics.
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“…wended my way through… Wyandotte…” How lyrical! I agree with the earlier comments – fishflies are new creatures to me. I’d describe them as sort of elegant with their large, graceful wings and curving bodies. Nice to know they aren’t harmful. Neither are the tarantulas migrating just southeast of us here in Colorado during mating season 🙂
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It’s a delightful walk in this town Dave … kind of a quaint, small-town atmosphere all on one main street and back before COVID, there was always something fun going on here. The fishflies are rather delicate looking and if a fishfly lands on you, you just pluck it off your hand, arm, clothes but I admit I would be beside myself witnessing a parade of tarantulas during mating season!
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💕
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💕 at you Ellie!
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wow! Creatures! loving the series L 🙂
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Glad you’re loving the series Michael. It was a long, hot Summer with a few coolish days made it bearable to go out with the camera and explore, especially since we had many torrential rainstorms which flooded the bigger parks so no walking there then. The fishflies look a little prehistoric don’t they?
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I always enjoy your walks, Linda! Nice photos of Wyandotte and the fishfly siege. It would be interesting to know what they do at an annual Fishfly Festival.
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Thanks Rebecca! I wish I had been lucky to find a wall covered in fishflies – it would have been more impressive, but at least I got a few up close. It is a pretty town and the main street, Biddle Avenue, has lots of quaint shops and eateries. I’d like to know too since they dedicate an entire festival to fishflies which probably won’t last much longer than the festival as they die within two or three days of hatching.
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Count me among those who have never heard of fishflies. They are strange looking things, with what looks like long tail? Glad to hear they’re a good sign though. It looks like you had a nice summery day for your walk then.
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I am surprised so many people never heard of them Joni. They are almost prehistoric looking with the long tail, but light as a feather and if they land on you, you barely know they are there. It was a beautiful Summer morning, like the old-fashioned Summers we remember from our youth.
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You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I am quite familiar with fish flies. When I worked in Port Huron we were only a block from the river. We would arrive from work and the front of the building would be covered with them. It was pretty icky actually. I remember many years ago we went to Algonac ( I think it was for 4th of July fireworks) coming home we were driving on the road that goes through the marsh the road was covered with fish flies and cars were going off the road into the marsh because it was so slippery.
Wyandotte looks like a nice little community.
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They are icky Ruth – I agree with you, though the centipede that ran down the hall when I turned on the light this morning when I got up, scared me more. I had the same thing happen when I worked at the diner in the Summer. It was open 24/7 and had big spotlights illuminating the diner and those fishflies glommed onto the building. I’d have to open the door carefully to avoid bringing them in on me. I have heard about the problems with their “greasy” bodies in the street on the news but you’re the first person who actually witnessed this. That’s terrible! I like Wyandotte and it would be fun to live there as the downtown area has a lot of nice events year around.
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I have not seen a fish fly in many years Linda, when I lived in northern Minnesota, there were always plenty of them and you never wanted to park your car by the street light where I worked or your car would be covered with them by morning.
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When I worked at the diner, it was painted white and open with floodlights and for two weeks or so, they’d be covered on the building when I came into work in the morning. I worked Summers and other school holidays. Not the nicest thing to see.
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Hi Linda
The fish fly was new to me and I really got a feel for them with your excellent photos trust let us see them in their setting
And how nice to feature this series of early morning June excursions – so fun and one more to go 😉
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Oh and the sign about removing hoods and all that – I wonder what they did when Covid rolled around – and it is not a nice sign but a needed thing because of some of the bad people in the world –
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Hi Yvette – those fish flies are almost transparent; they alight on your clothes or hands and you don’t know they’re there until you might look down. Yes, my last excursion in this series was today’s post. This Summer the soggy shoreline parks kept me from roaming on weekends like I usually do, except for the visit to Lake Erie Metropark where I saw the fawn which made my day, if not my Summer! I did a virtual 5K Saturday and did 7.4 miles altogether . Wore myself out!
That sign took me aback and I’ve seen it before in banks to remove sunglasses, but not all the rest. Sign of the times and I intended to use it in a collection of signs I’ve tucked away, but that collection is funny or unusual signs … nothing funny about this sign unfortunately.
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Yes – not too funny
But I did see a funny one recently
-in the restroom
It said
“Employees must wash hands”
And
“If no employees available please wash your own hands”
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Ha ha – I was in Chili’s once years ago and ribs and wanted to wash my hands and saw a sign in the restroom for employees to please remember to wash your hands – it seemed like a plea in case they forgot. My comfort level for Chili’s went down immediately!
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Haha –
And the other good sign I saw was
“No soliciting – unless tamales”
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