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Cicadas 2021 - Brood X


FXW176
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I've noticed two distinct noises that the cicadas make. The "distant police siren" noise and the louder "electric-like" noise that we are more accustomed to hearing annually. My backyard *crabapple?* tree seems to be a local jackpot of the "electric-like" noise cicadas. Many cicadas are flying around, especially in that tree. I'd guesstimate that cicada rates are around 1-2+ cicadas/ cubic meter.

Hopefully I can get into the 2-3+ C/m^3 stuff.

 

 

 

Note: I'm not entirely sure that it's a crabapple tree. I'm bad at tree types.

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12 minutes ago, George BM said:

I've noticed two distinct noises that the cicadas make. The "distant police siren" noise and the louder "electric-like" noise that we are more accustomed to hearing annually. My backyard *crabapple?* tree seems to be a local jackpot of the "electric-like" noise cicadas. Many cicadas are flying around, especially in that tree. I'd guesstimate that cicada rates are around 1-2+ cicadas/ cubic meter.

Hopefully I can get into the 2-3+ C/m^3 stuff.

Note: I'm not entirely sure that it's a crabapple tree. I'm bad at tree types.

Yeah, I was rather hoping that we could do WITHOUT the "electric-like," or annual cicadas this early in the season. The super-warm days we've already had apparently have drawn them out early. I've opened the windows in the house for fresh air, but even before I did you could CLEARLY hear the periodical cicadas singing. They are loud today.  :) 

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27 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

Yeah, I was rather hoping that we could do WITHOUT the "electric-like," or annual cicadas this early in the season. The super-warm days we've already had apparently have drawn them out early. I've opened the windows in the house for fresh air, but even before I did you could CLEARLY hear the periodical cicadas singing. They are loud today.  :) 

I keep wondering if there is any mixing between the broods and annuals. Not that they are attracted to each other’s song but they just bump into each other and because they look similar and it’s been 17 years. 

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Curiously, when I walked into Glover-Archibald Park yesterday, the background "song" was notably quieter there, and there were fewer carcasses sprinkled on the ground: though to the latter point, they are harder to pick out in a forest's undergrowth than on, say, a concrete sidewalk, so maybe it's just a matter of contrast. The background whirring is frankly louder when walking along Wisconsin Ave than it is when walking the G-A P trail. You'd think with all the trees around, the cicadas would have been flying around like P-51s during Big Week in WWII and a few would have landed on me and done their ritualistic sssslllooowwww doo-wop dance or whatever thing they do. (Evidently the males form choruses.) But that didn't happen at all while I was in the park.

The distant, "whirring" song is more pronounced in certain neighborhoods than others, as is the more immediate "crackling" sound. Still, neither is as loud yet as some of the sleet storms we had this past winter. It's making me miss my dogs. 17 years ago, both our beagles were alive and in the prime of their lives, with the older one trying his damndest to gorge out on the bugs.  

Poor little buggers seem doomed, though, when they're belly up. I've tried to turn over a couple. They're 17 years underground and in their literal moment in the sun, they're flat on their back and can't do a damn thing, and I try to help 'em out and move them into the grass so they can get it done. But it's hard to turn them over without hurting them. I get the impression that once they've gone to ground, it's basically game over for them anyhow. Most of the mating occurs in trees, or so I've read.  

Thing is, I'm fond of the little guys but they really don't look that much different from roaches, which I absolutely despise and immediately and prejudically exterminate whenever I see them. I was walking with my wife, two cicadas alit on her and she hated that. Eek-eek, and this is someone who doesn't readily go into "eek" mode. Whereas the Flying Cicada Brothers don't bother me at all. If cicadas kept the mosquito population in line, I'd be partial to having them around all season long, every year. But then the novelty would wear off.  

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Checked last night around 2300 and sure enough the larger pin oaks were loaded with marchers.

Right now the hum is quite noticeable inside the house through the screen.  Fog hasn't burned off, not even close to it. 

Thank goodness they are still not close to the house, it's enough of a PIA to keep the 51 solar panels clear of pollen!

Also, the fireflies were much more numerous.  After today's heat that will only increase.  Hopefully we have a good season for them!

Brood X cicadas won't even be a distant memory in July when the dusk singers emerge.  Now those are quite noisy and raspy but hearing those during an approaching thunderstorm is actually quite soothing to my ears!

And speaking of yelling at them, at least in the case with the aforementioned singers, they don't even stop at a deafening thunderclap!

 

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16 hours ago, wxtrix said:

just bumping. you’re hearing the magic cicadas right now. 

i’m hearing individual ones from the trees around me and when it gets really quiet (the wind lays down and there are no golf carts), i can hear the far off hum in the trees.

I've definitely heard the hissing sound of the "Cassini" ones under some trees, against the background din.  If I listen closely enough, I can also hear some individual or smaller groups as well, above the general hum (can sometimes hear the distinct "Phaaa-rooooh" sound now and then).

Last night, there were still a lot coming out of the ground at least around this one maple tree where I'm at.  I knelt down and looked at the grass, it was shimmering and moving, and upon closer inspection it was nymphs coming up.  Have also continued to see several crawling around on trees in the evenings.  Maybe they're being "fashionably late" to the party! :lol:

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2 hours ago, 09-10 analogy said:

Curiously, when I walked into Glover-Archibald Park yesterday, the background "song" was notably quieter there, and there were fewer carcasses sprinkled on the ground: though to the latter point, they are harder to pick out in a forest's undergrowth than on, say, a concrete sidewalk, so maybe it's just a matter of contrast. The background whirring is frankly louder when walking along Wisconsin Ave than it is when walking the G-A P trail. You'd think with all the trees around, the cicadas would have been flying around like P-51s during Big Week in WWII and a few would have landed on me and done their ritualistic sssslllooowwww doo-wop dance or whatever thing they do. (Evidently the males form choruses.) But that didn't happen at all while I was in the park.

The distant, "whirring" song is more pronounced in certain neighborhoods than others, as is the more immediate "crackling" sound. Still, neither is as loud yet as some of the sleet storms we had this past winter. It's making me miss my dogs. 17 years ago, both our beagles were alive and in the prime of their lives, with the older one trying his damndest to gorge out on the bugs.  

Poor little buggers seem doomed, though, when they're belly up. I've tried to turn over a couple. They're 17 years underground and in their literal moment in the sun, they're flat on their back and can't do a damn thing, and I try to help 'em out and move them into the grass so they can get it done. But it's hard to turn them over without hurting them. I get the impression that once they've gone to ground, it's basically game over for them anyhow. Most of the mating occurs in trees, or so I've read.  

Thing is, I'm fond of the little guys but they really don't look that much different from roaches, which I absolutely despise and immediately and prejudically exterminate whenever I see them. I was walking with my wife, two cicadas alit on her and she hated that. Eek-eek, and this is someone who doesn't readily go into "eek" mode. Whereas the Flying Cicada Brothers don't bother me at all. If cicadas kept the mosquito population in line, I'd be partial to having them around all season long, every year. But then the novelty would wear off.  

gram parsons approves, posthumously (probably)

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13 minutes ago, mappy said:

noticeable difference in the distance of the humming today. sounds much closer compared to the weekend. 

I might not be able to hear any other sounds this afternoon.  It will be just cicadas.  They could drown out a jackhammer 

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