Watch as millions of midges swarm above Headland Dunes State Nature Preserve along the shore of Lake Erie in Mentor, Ohio around sunset on Sunday, June 1, 2025. These tiny non-biting aquatic flying insects spend most of their lives in a larval stage in the lake. Around this time of year, when temperatures reach 60F (16C), they will hatch then emerge from the water to mate and reproduce. ‘Blind mosquitos’, as midges are sometimes referred to, are a nuisance for us, but signal a healthy ecosystem. Bats, fish and spiders gobble them up by the, you guessed it, millions.
Please excuse the inferior audio, it comes from the built-in mics of my iPhone and Fuji XT2 camera. Neither do a particularly nice job of collecting quality sound when the wind is up. I should have carried my Sony PCM D100. That said, upon approaching the preserve from the parking lot away from the surf, I could hear the swarm buzzing. It was fascinating.
While driving to the beach, my wife and I commented on how it seemed like a lot of people were having backyard barbecues. We were seeing so much ‘smoke’ along the roadway. Now we know it wasn’t smoke, it was millions of midges. We had never witnessed anything like it. At first she wanted to bail, but we stuck it out.
We had come to the lake with the goal of witnessing the aurora borealis again. We’ve been fortunate and spoiled to have seen in twice now from this location. I like to put the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse in my image foreground. Disappointedly, this time, the Northern Lights did not materialize, at least not that we could see against the light pollution in southern Canada.
Even without the aurora appearing, I managed to come back with what I think is a decent photograph. Take a look below. It is a 15-minute time exposure. A fisherman’s headlight appears as a squiggly streak as he walks off the breakwall and past my tripod-mounted camera. Star trails form a circle around the North Star.
Further Reading
- Read what Wikipedia has to say about non-biting midges, or chironomids, here.
- See more images of the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse at my blogpost here.