Cicadas

[WV Sawmiller]

   Well it is year 17 and we are having a bumper crop of cicadas hatching here on my place. The trees and grass just below my pasture fence are covered with shells, emerging and fully emerged cicadas.


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[Chuck White]

We don't see them very often in this area, but with my "service connected" Tinitus, I hear them just about 24/7!  :

Back when I was stationed in Thailand (69-70) I was shocked the first time I saw one of the locals pick the wings, legs and head off of one, then promptly ate it!  :-\

[WDH]

Is that the rare "black locust" cicada?

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   In this case it was a rare black locust cicada but it is very hard to tell them from the adjacent  tulip poplar, black walnut, dandelion, vetch and poison ivy cicadas found with a 10' area around it. :D

[samandothers]

 

 

 

 

 

There are walnut cicadas, dogwood cicadas, cicadas old homes and weedy cicadas!

Not extremely far from WV this weekend on our land in Va.  and took some pictures.  They were thick!

[WDH]

My favorite one is the walnut cicada :D. 

[Don P]

This should be our year as well, a friend on the other end of the county has them, still quiet here. Or they might have drowned, we've had whitewater in the front yard multiple times this spring. I remember last time probably a little later in the year the throbbing roar in the woods was at times almost deafening. The cycle does vary, not everyones hatch year is the same. The massive hatch is another one of nature's survival strategies called satiation, the birds can't eat all of us :D.

[Raider Bill]

Be a good place to be a chicken.

[samandothers]

My favorite one is the walnut cicada :D.

I thought that may be your favorite.  
Have not heard them calling yet.  Probably will be soon. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I wonder if Bluebirds eat cicadas? There is a pair nesting in this box and the eggs should hatch in about a week or less. Looks like the parents may not have to search far for food.

EDIT - Picture added. I noticed I left this off earlier.

[Magicman]

 


Here is a Terrapin finishing a Cicada meal.  The last bit is still captured under it's right front foot.

[RPF2509]

If anything represents the sound of summer its the drone of cicadas.  Of course when the 17 year cycle comes it can be a bit monotonous.  There was a 17 year cycle when I was in second grade.  Was it ever fun to collect the empty shells and put them in the girls hair.  Bonus for a live one but that totally freaked them out and they would tell the teacher.  Winged ones could be tied to a string and used like tethered airplanes - two could be raced!

[WV Sawmiller]

   A big old turkey gobbler woke me up this morning gobbing in the woods in the pasture above the house. A few minutes later he came down in the pasture and looked like he was loving all the cicadas. I guess this is a real good year to be a turkey. I have several big fox squirrels hanging around my bluebird box eating cicadas. The old daddy bluebird is running himself ragged chasing them away from the box with his mate inside on the eggs. Its funny to see a bird that small chasing the bigger squirrels.

[Skip]

We had "our' Hatch a few years ago , didn't care much for it   >:(, was deafening , chickens dearly loved it . Wife put some in freezer bags for a chicken treat in the winter .   Don't take much to make a chicken happy .