gas station bugs

Driving home from San Diego last night was memorable.  100 miles north of Los Angles on interstate 5, I stopped in at a gas station and found this awesome swarm of insects.  There were about 4-6 separate swarms.   The insects were harmles and were dying by the hundreds per second.  I don’t know why they were dying, I assume it was the end of their life cycle.  I am not sure if there were 5,000 or 50,000 insects, but there were a lot.  Although the swarms were huge, they were quiet.  I asked Hayley to get into the center of a swarm for a picture.

Equipment used – Canon 5D, 7D, Canon 24mm, Canon 100mm macro, Canon 65mm MP-E, MT 24-EX flash