Firefly Watching Workshop Schedule

Friday

Check in to the manor house any time after 10:00 am

11:00 am Welcome & Introduction to Tremper Mound and the Manor House, Meeting leaders and fellow registrants, and orientation to the weekend

11:30 am Indoor Presentation: The Natural and Cultural History of Fireflies. We will share a worldly and a local perspective of this specialized family of beetles that have mastered the art of bioluminescence throughout the temperate world and beyond.

12:30 pm Lunch at Tremper Manor House

1:30 pm Afternoon Hike at Tremper Mound: Understanding, Protecting & Promoting Firefly Habitat in The Field. Learning quality firefly habitats in the field, followed by a discussion on land management techniques intended to restore and protect firefly habitats.

4:00 pm Rest/Break and Dinner on Your Own. Local options for dinner in Portsmouth and West Portsmouth will be provided to registrants in advance.

8:30 - 11:00 pm Friday Night Firefly Watching at the Manor House & Pond Creek West. This is the first firefly watching night of the weekend, located next to the Tremper Manor House, where registrants will be first introduced to the dazzling showcase displays of 3-4 of mid-summer firefly species native to the area. We will also share some effective field techniques and methods for watching and identifying fireflies that registrants can use back at home!

Saturday

10:00 am Light Breakfast at the Manor House.

11:00 am Indoor Presentation: Learning to Identify Fireflies. Registrants will learn how to identify the many species of fireflies that unfold in seasonal progression from early-mid spring into late summer - by flash patterns, flash color, anatomy, habitat, and behavior

12:00 pm Afternoon Field Trips & Day-Time Fireflies (w/ packed lunch provided). Exploring the lanternless day-flying fireflies, as well as some of the deceptive firefly impostors of the beetle world (and anything else of interest!). These diminutive, yet beautiful and diverse beetles will change your understanding of the firefly world’s complexity.

4:00 pm Rest/Break and Dinner on Your Own. Local options for dinner in Portsmouth and West Portsmouth will be provided to registrants in advance.

7:00 pm Evening Indoor Presentations at the Tremper Manor House:

- Firefly Citizen Science - Conducting Your Own Xerces Firefly Atlas Survey. Registrants will be guided through the process of putting together an official Firefly Atlas Survey through The Xerces Society, an international organization dedicated to protecting insect biodiversity. Later on at night, for those who are interested, we will help participants put these skills into practice and create our own group survey at the Simon Farm & Woods Preserve

- Tremper Mound & The Great Portsmouth Works Following the Firefly Citizen Science presentation, Director of Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom Emily Uldrich will give a presentation on the rich indigenous prehistory of the great Portsmouth Works, an earthen ceremonial complex that spanned across the Ohio-Scioto Valley Confluence and across the shores of Kentucky. We will go outside afterwards for a historical walk of Tremper Mound.

9:30 - 11:00 pm Saturday Night Firefly Watching at Tremper Mound & Simon Farm & Woods (Participant's Choice) - For the final night of firefly watching, participants can choose to join one of the leaders at Tremper Mound for a second night, or choose to drive down the road to Simon Farm & Woods with another leader to experience a new site.

Sunday

9 am Light Breakfast at the Manor House

10 am Review of Firefly Identification, Phenology, and Natural History. Before the final presentation of the weekend, we will take some time to review everything we have covered over the course of the weekend.

11:00 am Send Off Hike at Simon Woods (Participants Provide Their Own Packed Lunch) The firefly watching workshop will finish with a short trip down State Route 73 to the 600+ acre historic Simon Farm & Woods, where we will take a historical tour of the farm, followed by a 1.5 mile hike through the farm's old growth white oak forests.

2:00 pm Depart for home.