Photos: Cicadas
May. 14th, 2024 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureCicadas are hatching! I've seen a few hatch earlier, but this morning after the rain there are lots of them. The biggest concentration is around the forest garden and edges of the patio. :D These are red-eyed cicadas, technically periodical cicadas. Their carapaces are almost hard, their wings fully extended but still too soft to fly. It's a feast for everything that eats insects. Humans can eat them too. (I'm not planning to try that.) Usually what we get here are various types of the larger green cicadas, like the dog-day cicadas.
For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
Several cicadas cling to leaves near their shells.
Here is a closeup of a shell on a leaf.
Many cicadas emerged around the forest garden.
This shell is clinging to a grass stem.
A cicada poses on a grass stem.
This shell almost forms an abstract picture.
A cicada looks head-on at the camera.
The barrel garden is blooming.
Pink salvia blooms beside the barrel garden.
A firecracker plant blooms in the barrel garden. Hummingbirds love these things.
This is the rain garden before today's planting.
A purple columbine now blooms in the rain garden.
I abandoned this project halfway through to chase a butterfly. I was taking off the old hanging baskets to replace them with new ones. I have since repurposed the old ones as patio pots.
An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeds on a flowering bush. I am all excited because this is the bush beside the picnic table container garden, where I just planted dill and fennel. I am hoping for caterpillars!
Here is a closeup of the swallowtail butterfly. I don't know what the bush is; it's older than I am. The closest I've found is mock orange but it doesn't seem quite like the pictures.
For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
Several cicadas cling to leaves near their shells.
Here is a closeup of a shell on a leaf.
Many cicadas emerged around the forest garden.
This shell is clinging to a grass stem.
A cicada poses on a grass stem.
This shell almost forms an abstract picture.
A cicada looks head-on at the camera.
The barrel garden is blooming.
Pink salvia blooms beside the barrel garden.
A firecracker plant blooms in the barrel garden. Hummingbirds love these things.
This is the rain garden before today's planting.
A purple columbine now blooms in the rain garden.
I abandoned this project halfway through to chase a butterfly. I was taking off the old hanging baskets to replace them with new ones. I have since repurposed the old ones as patio pots.
An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeds on a flowering bush. I am all excited because this is the bush beside the picnic table container garden, where I just planted dill and fennel. I am hoping for caterpillars!
Here is a closeup of the swallowtail butterfly. I don't know what the bush is; it's older than I am. The closest I've found is mock orange but it doesn't seem quite like the pictures.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 05:24 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2024-05-15 06:27 am (UTC)I'm glad you like these.
>> I'm envious of everyone getting to see the cicadas this year; they're completely missing where I live. <<
Bummer. They're beautiful here.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 08:47 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2024-05-15 09:15 am (UTC)To me, cicada song is the sound of summer. These spring ones are weird, but they have their own beauty.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 11:17 am (UTC)The once-every-17-years historic Cicada Emergence in our area three years ago was LOUD!
no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 03:19 pm (UTC)South of us they have Mormon Crickets here in Idaho but I dunno if they make a noise, I think just a huge mess on the roads.
Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-16 09:44 am (UTC)Mine haven't started singing yet.
>> The farmers in the Midwest must be very concerned. <<
Cicadas don't eat plants as adults. The most they do is kill a few twigs laying eggs. The nymphs don't cause problems underground either.
>>I hadn't thought before about what a heyday it will be for birds, if they eat them. What an experience. I have never lived around them.<<
The ground is sprinkled with discarded wings, shining gold in the sun. Birds pick off the wings when eating cicadas.
>>South of us they have Mormon Crickets here in Idaho but I dunno if they make a noise, I think just a huge mess on the roads.<<
That doesn't sound fun.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-16 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-15 05:56 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-15 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-16 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-16 03:24 am (UTC)The flowers look lovely!
Thank you!
Date: 2024-05-16 09:22 am (UTC)Mine haven't really started singing yet.
>> You got lots of neat photos
The flowers look lovely! <<
I'm glad you liked these.