they came out of the earth and rose up into the sky like amber snowflakes

I was just sitting here minding my own business, doing a bit of scrabble on the computer. Looked out the window and didn't know what I was seeing... something floating... upwards. It looked for anything like snowflakes viewed while standing on one's head (not that I've tried that, my balance isn't quite that good). I got up and went and looked closer, out the window. I was thinking it might be some cottonwood type seed fluffs caught in an updraft, but as I looked more carefully it really was more than that. These things, whatever they were, were rising up from the lawn and up up up into the air. Peering through the old wavy glass and the screen I could just about make out some sort of movement on the ground. This seems interesting, I thought and went outside, grabbing the digital camera before I did so. What I found was, ants. Pouring out of the ground and taking off, uncountable, big, winged ants. This was new to me, so I took some pictures and video, and did some research on the internet and am here to report. I dunno what sort of ants they are. I've found it's nearly impossible to identify a species of insect via internet searching. The closest I got was that they seem to be some type of yellow ant.... that's the common name for the group, not just me making something up. Anyway, more interesting than my rambling are probably the images, so here you go.



And I took video too!




I went out again after typing here for a bit and the exodus had finished. Just a few odd stragglers still hanging about. The event was as fleeting as it was astonishing. Insects get up to a lot more than we usually think. For informational purposes, what was going on was that the sexually mature males and females (future queens) were getting booted out of the colony to mate and try to set up colonies of their own round about the city. I had some familiarity with the concept from playing SimAnt. It's also the similar to what happens when bees swarm.

If you see this happening some summer day, stop and check it out. Be prepared to give a few ants a hitch to wherever you're off too. It's worth it.