The Danube is blooming!

End of August I received many emails and calls from the blog's readers, that there has been a miracle all along the river. THE DANUBE IS BLOOMING! They sent me some pictures as well to illustrate the hatching of the mayflies. According to the recent drastic water quality improvement, the famous "Tiszavirágzás" (the Tisza river blooming) phenomenon has to prepare for a challenge. It is a distinct possibility, that the blooming Danube will attract as many tourists and nature lovers in the future just like it's major side-river nowdays. Now let's see the reports of our readers, how they saw the bridal dance of these extremely short-lived mayflies!

23th August, Vác, twilight. Miklós Légrádi: Several months ago I read article on the Dunai Szigetek blog, that in the old times not only the Tisza river bloomed, but the Danube was also swarmed by these small, white mayflies. Yesterday evening I took my boat and rowed out on the Danube. After twilight I heard an intensifying crepitation from the boat. When I turned on my lamp, a beautiful sight met me. Millions of little mayflies flittered on the water. So now anybody can go and watch this miracle! THE DANUBE IS BLOOMING! It happened after twilight, in Vác, next to the corso, a hundred yards from the riverbank in the line of the cathedral.

24th August Tahitóffalu, Gergely Rácz: Yesterday evening I saw a strange thing in my village, on the Tildy Zoltán bridge, which overarches the Danube. Many-many bugs were flying next to the street lamps. I took some pictures (link: http://indafoto.hu/raczger/dunaviragzas), and I also shot a short film (see below). I live in Tahitótfalu for a while, but I have never seen such thing, not even in the vicinity. But yesterday another spectator told me that last summer the same happened in August. It seemed that thousands of mayflies came up from the river. It's a pity that the traffic killed many of them, but most survived. I will go down to the bridge today, and if they come again I will shoot some more pictures. I hope you all will find these pictures interesting, because man can't find any information on this phenomenon on the internet. 

25th August, Árpád bridge, Budapest. Excerpts from the blog Velvet: "Good god, what are these?! - the public of the tram No. 1. was shocked this weekend at the Szentlélek place stop. The tram stop and the whole bridge was flooded by hundreds of mayflies, or more. The small winged insects gathered around the street lamps, but there were so many of them, they could swarm the stop, so the passangers had to wait for the tram down on the steps. The situation was the same after getting on, as the mayflies entered the vehicle. No matter of the legislation (2000 HUF must be paid for one killed mayfly), the passangers slapped many of them.

29th August, A38 ship, Budapest. The concert audience encountered dead mayflies while walking on the ship's bridge. Five of them came to me in a small box, and are now resting on my desk.

14th August, Ivett Pipoly: I spent my summer holiday in the Danube-bend, between august 13th and 17th, and I saw dead mayflies then. I attached a photo, which was taken next to the Nagymaros-Visegrád ferry.

 
28th August, Tuesday night. (Dorián Horváth): I was fishing on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. Between 7 and 8 in the evening I was literally swarmed by white insects. Strong winds in the afternoon were subsided by twilight, then the danubian mayflies came out. Their dropped larvae skins floated on the river surface, and the fish came up to this laid table to feed. I never saw mayflies hatching like this before and I had to stop fishing. They were so many I just stood there delighted. :)