You may think they’re fireflies. Or sightings of the hummingbird which feeds from the red flowers or feeder just outside your window. They’re not bees, because bees sleep at night, and it’s likely that the hummingbird is already on its way south. Those objects you see flitting outside your window are autumn garden faeries.
The faeries that flutter around the garden, usually at night, are much smaller than the faeries you might be familiar with. According to the listing in the “World Atlas of Fantastical Magical Creatures You Might Encounter”:
Autumn Garden Faeries, found throughout the globe. Never more than ¼ inch (0.635 centimeters) tall. Prone to knocking into windows when flying, especially when there is no moon at night, making sounds like taps of hard rain against the glass. Sometimes they are sucked into a person’s nose during the day but if the creatures in the nasal passages do not insist on being let out, it is more likely you’ve breathed in a gnat.
Also, according to the Almanac, the faeries of autumn sing a tune that sounds very much like a beautiful song played through really bad speakers.
Even in places where there are no gardens, like a small apartment four floors above the street, a place where the closest trees grow in a park far away, autumn garden faeries sometimes find their way to those windows, too. While two boys nod into sleep, they hardly notice the tapping sounds. Their sister, who stares out the window while she waits for their parents to come home, sees every one, in every tap on the window pane, in every flicker of light.
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