About a week ago I stepped outside and heard a curious sound. At first I thought it might be a small leak on the gas pipeline near our house, but no... it wasn't coming from that direction. There's a set of high-voltage power lines in the direction it did seem to come from, but sound can be deceptive. Either notion was mildly disturbing. Occasionally I wouldn't hear it, but other times it was so loud I could hear it in my home with the doors and windows shut!
Turns out "Mother Nature" is to blame. It's nothing more than Brood XIX of the Periodical Cicada!! It led me to do a little research and see what I could learn. I grew up plucking little brown shells (the exoskeletons they leave behind) from trees. We knew they were left by what we called "locusts", but I now know are actually Cicadas. There are annual varieties (which is why I found the shells every year), but there are also Periodical Cicadas which only emerge on a 13 or 17-year schedule. The ones in our area are the 13-year variety and belong to Brood XIX. Come 2015 we may see some again when Brood XXIII emerges. The little critters spent the past 13 years underground and have all emerged simultaneously to "sing" for the next month. It's an amazing sound! My newspaper reported that there was a case a few years back where the sound was so intense near the Memphis Airport that it was louder than the jet engines!
I tried to capture the sound on my cellphone to share here. It's a poor video, but maybe if you turn up your volume you will be able to hear the steady hum of the Cicadas in the background. Oh, and that tree in the clip is the same one pictured here.
Turns out "Mother Nature" is to blame. It's nothing more than Brood XIX of the Periodical Cicada!! It led me to do a little research and see what I could learn. I grew up plucking little brown shells (the exoskeletons they leave behind) from trees. We knew they were left by what we called "locusts", but I now know are actually Cicadas. There are annual varieties (which is why I found the shells every year), but there are also Periodical Cicadas which only emerge on a 13 or 17-year schedule. The ones in our area are the 13-year variety and belong to Brood XIX. Come 2015 we may see some again when Brood XXIII emerges. The little critters spent the past 13 years underground and have all emerged simultaneously to "sing" for the next month. It's an amazing sound! My newspaper reported that there was a case a few years back where the sound was so intense near the Memphis Airport that it was louder than the jet engines!
I tried to capture the sound on my cellphone to share here. It's a poor video, but maybe if you turn up your volume you will be able to hear the steady hum of the Cicadas in the background. Oh, and that tree in the clip is the same one pictured here.
8 comments:
How clever of you to share it with us! I lived in Ethiopia for six months nearly twenty years ago so I think I would have recognized the sound of cicadas, but who knows. When I watch films from Africa and hear them, I close my eyes and feel I am back in Addis Ababa. I won´t say the sound is beautiful, but it has sentimental value to me :)
Dorte - How interesting that you lived for awhile in Ethiopia! Living in the country, I hear my share of insects, frogs, etc.... but I think it's just the sheer volume and numbers with this that is so remarkable. I must have heard it 13 years ago, but I really don't remember.
Wow!!! Most interesting! I used to love picking the exos off the trees and trying to scare sibling and cousins with them.
Never ever see them around here. My little ones ( not so little these days) have never seen one.
WHAT? WHAT DID SHE SAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great post!
J
Kelly,
A very good post! I listened
to your video and yes, I could
hear the Cicadas.
Raven
We had some sort of those around us a few years back. They are crazy loud! And those little exoskeletons they leave behind are creepy as all get out. I guess we will be due for another round in a few years or so.
The cicadas who up en masse here every 13 years. This is the year.
yeah, i could almost hear the Cicadas...thanks for sharing, Kelly; enjoyed this.
big hugs!
betty
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