Red-Wings and Buzzers

Spring has really sprung in Chicagoland. It is evident with the arrival of the red-winged blackbirds and the early cicadas.

I am sure if I was up and more alert at this time last year that I would have seen the beautiful birds and the first infestation of the buzzing cicadas. (A cicada looks similar to a locust, but it has a larger body and is more colorful.

I feel bad for the early cicadas because they will be devoured by the birds and dogs as they venture out of their underground burrows; however do not feel too bad for the industrious and noisy insects. Soon there will be so many of them around, the dogs and birds will be sick of eating them, and then all the male cicadas will sing; and the stereophonic buzzing will sound like a den of rattlesnakes.

I saw my first sighting of a red-winged blackbird a few weeks ago. It was sitting on the tip of cattail and I would have totally missed the little black bird, but it hopped off the plant and I immediately saw the bright red feathers. It was the most beautiful little bird I have seen in a long time. When Lynn and I were driving up to Madison, Wisconsin, I saw oodles of red-winged blackbirds off the freeways defending their small territories. The birds nests in marshes, cattails, fields, etc. They migrate from the Southern states and Mexico around March to the Northern states, including Aurora, IL, in swarms. They will migrate back to their warmer climates in the fall.

It is raining today in Chicagoland. With the arrival of the cicadas, along with the red-winged blackbirds, and the rain, it feels like spring!

-Shelly

Wind Pipes of Love

I am calling the 'wind pipes of love' the loud and deafening Illinois insects known as the cicadas. The noisy mating and social rituals make the night sounds (crickets, frogs, etc.) of Davis County (in Utah) sound like whispering gnats. When I first heard the cicadas this summer I thought our house had been invaded by rattle snakes. Lynn told me the noise was coming from the cicadas. Have you ever stood under a noisy light pole and heard a constant buzzzzz? That is what the cicadas sound like but amplified by 100 decibels.

The cicadas I've heard this summer are annual guests. They emerge in the summer from their larvae stage under the ground and immediately crawl, climb, or fly clumsely to the closest plant, tree, building, etc. and begin singing, and singing, and then singing some more. There are periodical cicadas that emerge in the midwestern states on a 13 or 17-year cycle. Last summer (2007) Illinois was lucky #17 for the cicadas. If Lynn and I are still living in Illinois in 13 or 17-years, we will be investing in a few good pairs of ear plugs so we can sleep at night.

As with crickets, it is the male cicadas that ‘sing’ to entice the female cicadas. Large groups of males clump together. The loud(er) the noise the more females they attrack. All the loud racket disrupts the birds and other insect or animal species that might try making a cicada sandwich for dinner. (It is the usually the early cicadas that are gobbled up by dogs, cats and the birds. But, there are sooo many new cicadas (even when we are not on a 13 or 17-year cycle) that emerge every day that the dogs, cats and birds are sick of them and leave them alone. ) The louder they sing, the more females they attract. It’s a stereophonic symphony of sorts. It will seem like one tree will vibrate and sing, a neighboring bush will pipe in until the whole day or night sky is filled with the rattling boisterous music or noise of the cicadas.

The cicadas are buzzing their last breaths as we approach fall. They will all die out until next summer's generation appears and begins their energetic and earsplitting 'wind pipes of love'.

-Shelly